The Inner Team Attraction Job
by Crowley's-demon-lover
Summary: Sophie's niece joins the team and after a couple of jobs, she and Eliot grow closer until the chemistry is too much to ignore. A rubbish summary but the the story is better, I assure you! Rated T but it may be changed later on.
1. Introductions

I got off the airplane and walked through the American terminal, looking my auntie Sophie. I had come to America to get away from my nagging parents and bad boyfriends and help her and the people she worked with.  
When I saw her, she was exactly as I remembered her; dressed fashionable with shoulder-length black hair and a kind smile on her face.  
"Sherrie," she threw her arms around me. "It's really good to see you again."  
I hugged her back, loving hearing the English accent in an American surroundings.  
"Do you want to grab a coffee or go straight back?"  
"Can we go straight back, I'm exhausted," I said and it triggered a yawn.  
"Sure, I think Nate is getting things ready," Sophie took one of my bags and led me outside to her car.  
"So, is Nate your boyfriend?"  
"Yeah, and he's also the head of Leverage Consulting and Associates. Nate is a former insurance investigator. The others all have their own skills and together they use the skills to fight injustices by the government. They help ordinary citizens but because the government don't like it, they are classed as criminals."  
I nodded. I was joining their team to get myself away from home and because of what Sophie thought were my amazing persuasion skills.  
Even so, I was still nervous.  
She must have picked up on this because she said, "you've got nothing to worry about, really. They are all really nice and friendly."  
"If I don't piss them off?"  
"Well, yeah. Generally," my aunt laughed.  
"So, who is there? I mean, what are their names?" I asked her.  
"There is Nate, obviously. There is Eliot; Alec but everyone calls him by his last name, Hardison, and lastly, there is Parker. I think you will get on with her, she's a lot like you; she is awkward around new people."  
"I'm not awkward, just . . . Shy," I shrugged.  
Sophie just smiled at me and then shuffled in her bag for her phone, when it started ringing.  
"Hello? . . . All of you? . . . Okay then, we will come there but it can't be for long, Nate. She wants some rest . . . No, it will be okay, I'm sure . . . I'll see you in about ten minutes."  
When she closed her phone, Sophie turned to me.  
"They are all going to our local pub, they thought you might like a welcome drink but I told Nate we won't be there long. That's okay, isn't it?"  
"Yeah," I nodded.

* * *

In the pub, the team were waiting for Sophie and me to arrive.  
"We've got everyone we need, why do we need anyone else?" Eliot said, wary of bringing someone new into the team.  
"We're doing this for Sophie, and for her niece, remember. Try and be friendly," Nate said with warning eyes.  
"Well, what's she like?" Parker asked.  
"From what Sophie has told me, she's a bit like Parker when she first meets people."  
Hardison looked at Parker and said, "oh great."  
"I mean, I think, she's quiet and not much of a people person at first," Nate added  
"Why is she coming to stay with Sophie? All the way from England?" Parker asked.  
"That's not really my place to say," Nate answered, looking uneasy.  
"But you know?" Eliot spoke up.  
"Yeah, I know. And we all know she's joining the team."

Entering the pub, I saw that the whole scene wasn't much different from back home; everyone was sat in their own groups, talking away and drinking and laughing, and Sophie led me over to one group in particular, with three men and a woman.  
Before introducing me to anyone, she bent over to the oldest and kissed his cheek.  
"Nate, everybody, this is my niece."  
The other three, that were sat round the table, turned and looked at me.  
'Oh this is uncomfortable,' I thought to myself, looking from one face to another and then to Sophie.  
"Does you nephew have a name?" The woman, blonde and kind of petite, asked Sophie while looking at me.  
"Her name's Sherrie, like the drink."  
Smiling nervously, I nodded to let them know my aunt was right.  
"Sit down," Nate said, pointing to a chair next to one of the guys, coloured with black hair. He looked kind of thin too.  
Once the chair was pulled out, I sat down and chewed on my thumbnail.  
"Sherrie, that's Eliot," Nate pointed to the guy sat on the other side of the blonde.  
I looked at him; he had shoulder length brown/blonde hair and blue eyes and, oh boy, he was hot!  
Nate carried on. "That's Parker and you're sat next to Hardison."  
"Hey," they three of them all said and nodded.  
"Oops, sorry," Sophie smiled at me.  
"I'm going to get a round in. What do you want?" Eliot asked, his voice gravely and relaxing.  
"Me and Sherrie will just have a coke, we're not staying long," my aunt told him.  
The chatter between them started again and I sat quietly, playing with my fingers.  
When Eliot came back, I picked up the glass he'd placed in front of me and took a sip.  
"So, do you have a voice or are you a mute?" Parker asked me.  
"Parker!" Sophie gasped.  
"I can talk," I said. "I just . . .jetlag."  
"So you'll talk more tomorrow?" Hardison smiled.  
"Probably," I smiled back. "So . . .do you mind if I go get some rest?" I asked Sophie.  
"Absolutely," she nodded and drank the last mouthful of coke in her glass.  
"I, err . . .I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow," I stood up and looked from Hardison to Parker to Eliot and lastly, to Nate.  
"Good to meet you," Hardison said.  
"Yeah," Parker added.  
"Seeya," Eliot joined in.  
Sophie took me by the arm and walking to the door, asked, "they aren't that bad, are they?"  
"No. I wouldn't have guessed they are . . .who you said they are. And congratulations with Nate, he's quite yummy," I giggled to her.  
She giggled back and we left through the door.  
"Her accent isn't the same," Parker spoke out after I'd gone.  
"I think she grew up in a different part to Sophie but they have always been close, I think," Nate said.  
"You weren't joking about her being quiet," Eliot said and took a swig from his beer.  
"I'm sure she'll be different when she gets to know you all,. Sophie did happen to mention she swears like a drunken sailor."  
"Wait up a minute, you're telling us that she has a bad mouth on her? The girl that was sat here a minute that barely spoke?" Hardison said in disbelief.  
"That's what I was told," Nate just shrugged.  
The others 'mmm'-ed and 'yeah'-ed and carried on drinking their beers.


	2. Hardison

Something of a short chapter I'm afraid but I will make sure the next one is longer.

* * *

The next morning, I was up really early because I found it hard to sleep in a new bed in a new place, so I made my way down to the living room to watch TV or get something to eat or just sit around.  
I didn't expect anyone to be up so I was a little surprised to see Hardison sat up.  
"Oh, I didn't expect anyone else to be up," I said, quietly.  
"Couldn't sleep? Me either so when I can't sleep, I sit up and surf the internet looking for possible jobs," Hardison replied.  
"And by jobs, you mean. . .place to rob or whatever to give people it back. Or something like that?" I asked and sat on the sofa opposite him.  
"Something like that," he smiled.  
"So we're the only ones up?"  
My mouth dropped open. "90 minutes? Are you serious?"  
Hardison nodded. "I bet you wanna know what I do, right?"  
"Well, I didn't want to ask," I looked away, feeling awkward  
"I guess you could call me the geek of the group. I can hack into anywhere, like the White House for example. I can make bombs but it's not very often I have to do that and I'm quite good with electrics. They use these earwigs to talk to each other that I made."  
"Wow, you're really smart then?"  
"Well, I don't like to blow my own horn, but yeah, kinda," he nodded.  
"Are you and the, err . . .the team close?" I asked.  
"Oh yeah. For some of us the team is our family, like me for example. I grew up in foster care so it feels good to have people this close. Eliot is like a brother to me and Parker, well . . ."  
"Ah, say no more," I smiled, understanding.  
"What about you? Surely you've got to have some interesting things about you," Hardison turned to face me.  
"Oh, I don't know about that. I love to read and I am quite good at persuasion," I just shrugged.  
"How come you came here then? Was England so bad?"  
"Yes. But I don't really wanna talk about it," I answered and squirmed.  
"Hey, I told you I build bombs," he crossed his arms, joking.  
"I have a lot of tattoos," I raised my eyebrows, suggesting that might make up my lack of answer.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah but most of them are hidden."  
Hardison looked me over in my jeans and hoody.  
"I can't see any."  
"Okay then, they're all hidden. Don't take this the wrong way but there's something about you; you're really easy to talk to. I don't think I'd be quite this talkative with the others. Well, maybe Nate," I spoke to him.  
"Oh yeah, Nate is awesome. He is the one who set up Leverage Consulting and Associates. That's what we call ourselves; it's easier than 'we'll get back the money the government took from you and steal back objects that have been stolen from you,' so yeah," Hardison said and I had to laugh.  
"I am going to try and get back to sleep, any tips?"  
"Count sheep?"  
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," I smiled and made my way back up to bed.  
I felt a bit better knowing that I had gotten to know one of them a little, knowing that I had a possible friend already.  
I climbed into bed and tried what Hardison had suggested; I pictured sheep in my head and counted them as they jumped over a fence.  
One, two, three, four, five . . . .  
Sure enough it worked and it wasn't long before I felt myself drifting off to sleep.


	3. The First Job Pt 1

A week and a half later, Parker had seemed to adjust to me and we were talking in my room, when she mentioned Eliot. I bit my lip so not to smile.  
"Let me guess, you like Eliot?"  
"What makes you think that?" I asked.  
"Because most women do like him but you're not really his type anyway," Parker said, still lacking some social skills.  
"What's his type?"  
"Models. Airheads. Big boobs and no brains, you know the type."  
"Yeah, well I don't like him anyway," I lied and headed down to get some cereal.  
At the counter, Eliot and Hardison were already there, bowls in front of them.  
"Hey guys," I grabbed the box and emptied it into a bowl I'd picked off the shelf.  
"Want me to feed you?" Eliot grinned at me.  
"I don't think I'm your type," I said without looking at him. "I've heard about your models."  
I walked away, leaving Hardison laughing and Eliot rising his eyebrow at me, a likening growing inside.  
When I was sat on the sofa, Nate came out and dropped a folder onto the table.  
"Now listen, the victim, Hannah Kane, stopped in a hotel and had a lot of things stolen, antiques etc, but the hotel claims innocence and sailed through court. Hannah is convinced the hotel took these items and so we are going to send two in as newly-weds, a chambermaid and a porter. Parker and Sherrie, one of you girls will be the bride and the other will be the chambermaid. Eliot or Hardison will be the groom and the other will be the porter," Nate put the case forward.  
"Well, just an idea but don't you think Eliot and Sherrie are better suited to each other. I mean, I know me and Parker are actually seeing each other but to present an image . . ." Hardison said.  
I looked at Eliot, who was smiling at me, and I felt a little nervous and a little excited.  
"Erm . . .what the hell," I shrugged.  
"Not like you've got anything to worry about, I only sleep for an hour and a half," he said and I nodded.  
"So I've heard. What else do you do? I know most of the things about the other team but nothing about you."  
"I don't share. Anything. But I will tell you one thing; you get the first punch for free. Hit me again and I will hit you back," he said, seriously.  
"That's why he's called 'the Hitter'," Nate said.  
"Likewise, but if you do hit me, you better be prepared to pay for it," I scowled at him.  
Hardison pulled a 'ooh' face.  
"We're a team, remember, we work together so we get along. Now, let's get ready for the job," Nate said, a slight warning tone to his voice and headed into the corridors.

Being the only two not in costume, both me and Eliot strolled up to the log-in desk.  
"Mr and Mrs Sinclair for the honeymoon suite," Eliot said in his gravely voice and wrapped an arm around my waist.  
"_Just try to tolerate it and play along,"_ Nate's voice said through the earwig.  
"Yeah," I just said, plainly and hesitantly rested my head against Eliot's shoulder.  
"Here are your keys and enjoy your honeymoon. Congratulations," the woman behind the desk smiled at us and handed over our keys.  
In the elevator, on the way up to the top floor, Eliot crossed his arms and looked at me.  
"I thought your 'skill' was persuasion."  
"It is but I don't recall a situation there that needed any persuasion," I raised my eyebrow.  
"You are more like Sophie than I thought," he shook his head and pulled me out of the elevator when it dinged. "Come on, wifey, Nate will be waiting for your call."  
"What?"  
"That's what we do, remember."  
We stopped outside the room with our number and before I could open the door, Eliot spun me round so I was trapped against the door.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"  
He leant forward and when I felt his breath on my ear, I rested my head back and tensed.  
"There may be bugs in there; Parker and Hardison will coming in, playing their roles and Hardison will buzz for bugs. If we're clean, we talk the plan over, decide what to do."  
Eliot reached past my waist and grabbed the door handle; when he opened it, I swung in with the door and gaped at the room.  
"Oh wow, it's huge."  
"Like you're new husband, remember," Eliot said in a flirty voice.  
'Yeah right', I mouthed at him.  
"I'm going to let you-know-who that I'm safe," I wiggled my phone in character.  
I messed around with my phone so, if there were any bugs, it beeped.  
"Hello Daddy," I said into the phone to Nate.  
"Oh boy," Eliot said under his breath.  
"Did you have any problems getting there? What's the room like?" Nate said over the phone, asking questions in code.  
"The room is really big and amazing, lots of places to put our stuff. You know I don't like leaving our expensive things lying round in the open. And we got here fine, no problems; the hotel staff are really nice."  
There was a knock at the door and when I looked at Eliot, he was by the door and mouthed 'Hardison.'  
"Daddy, I have to go, the porter is here," I said into the phone and hung up after Nate told me to 'call if there was any problems.'  
When Hardison walked in, I had to cover my mouth to stop from laughing.  
He was wearing a white shirt, black trousers, a red hotel blazer and a black bow tie and he looked so funny.  
"Your bags sir," he said to Eliot in a deep, Jamaican voice. "Would you like me to put them where they belong?"  
"Please," I nodded to him.  
Hardison took out one of his geek gadgets and started sweeping the walls and ceiling until he stopped above the bed and pointed, putting a lip over his mouth. When he was stood by me and Eliot, he whispered to us, "I'll adjust it later to they can hear what would sound like a newly-wed couple. The important thing is they probably heard Sherrie say you both have expensive items on you." He headed to the bathroom, resuming his role.  
"This goes in the bathroom, yes?"  
"Yeah," Eliot replied and answered the door to another knock.  
Parker walsed in wearing a black dress with a white apron, carrying sheets and towels.  
"Do you need clean sheets?"  
"Why would we need clean sheets? We've only just arrived, shouldn't the sheets have already been changed?" I quizzed.  
"Ah, my mistake. Nate says you're to stay in here and wait for the hotel staff, which are bound to try and break in. Me, Hardison and Nate will look for the stolen goods and Sophie will be nearby if a distraction is needed; we'll call you if we need you," Parker whispered the last past.  
"I've finished with your bags," Hardison's fake Jamaican accent said and he left the room, pointing to the bed and then to outside..  
"I shall be leaving you too, enjoy your honeymoon," Parker said in a knowing voice and left.  
When we were alone, I made an audible noise of dropping down onto the bed.  
"Baby," I cringed as I said it. "They have a swimming pool here, and you seen the beach, right?"  
"I can't wait to see you in that tiny bikini," Eliot winked and I held up my middle finger.  
"Cause a distraction for five minutes, it will give me time to set up some . . .honeymoon noises," Hardison said into our earwigs.  
"This bikini?" I said to Eliot, doing nothing but remaining to sit on the bed.  
"Mmm, that would be the one, Mrs Sinclair."  
"Are you going to let me get changed or are you going to jump on me halfway through, Mr. Sinclair?"  
"Wait and see."  
I shook my head and scowled at him then unzipped my hoodie and zipped it back up to make the bug and whoever was listening think it was my trousers.  
"Well, are you going to stand and watch me, Adam, or are you going to get into you trunks?"  
"I'm going to stand and watch you," Eliot stood in front of me wiggling his eyebrows and I stuck my fingers down my throat, pretending silently to gag.  
"Okay, we're ready to go," Hardison's voice spoke.  
"I don't know, I'm awfully tired from the flight," I yawned.  
"Then I'll just have to wake you up, won't I, Julie?" Eliot jumped on the bed and when we heard the noises that were beginning to play, we both removed our earwigs.  
"Is it safe to speak?" I whispered.  
"Yeah," Eliot said, sitting further down the bed.  
"So, how long will the track be playing for?"  
"Let's say . . .an hour."  
"Ha! That's ambitious," I snuffed at him.  
"You don't like me, do you?" Eliot turned to look at me.  
"Oh, so you have noticed? I don't trust you either; I don't trust anyone but Sophie."  
"Why?"  
"Why don't I like you? Well, you're obviously hiding a lot, which means you don't trust the team too much, either; you won't tell anything about yourself so I don't really know you, and I don't like people I don't know anything about. You're a man-whore who is still single so I'm guessing you have a bad habit of using women." I crossed my arms and smiled smugly.  
"So another of your talents is reading people?" Eliot raised his eyebrows.  
"You're not the only one hiding things."


	4. The First Job Pt 2

True to Eliot's word, an hour later, my phone started ringing and sounding tired, I answered.  
"Nate says to put your earwigs in, the tape will end in exactly two minutes. Act as though you're going to the beach, open and shut the door and if you want to talk, sit as far away from the bed as possible," Sophie relayed Nate's orders.  
"Okay," I replied. "You could have put me with Hardison."  
"Well, try to tolerate him, you have thirty seconds left," Sophie said and hung up.  
I closed my phone and told Eliot; 40 seconds later, I took a deep breath and said, "that's why I married you."  
"So it wasn't for my charm and good looks?"  
"Yeah, that too," I answered and shook my head, mouthing 'hell no' afterwards.  
"Shall we go to the beach like you wanted?" Eliot asked me.  
"You read my mind."  
We both made shuffling noises and he opened the door.  
"After you, beautiful."  
"Thank you," I said and while he closed the bedroom door, rather loudly I might add, I tiptoed to the wall beside the bathroom door and slid down the door till I was sat on the floor.  
Eliot sat on the other side of the door frame and I rolled my head against the wall to his direction.  
"This is going to be a very long day," I whispered.  
"It's all part of the job. You'll get used to it . . .or you'll go mad," he whispered back.  
I sighed, quietly, and mentally prepared myself for the long day ahead.

* * *

After an hour, Eliot asked the same question that Hardison had.  
"Why did you move here and join the team?"  
"What did you do before joining the Leverage team?" I whispered back, across the doorway.  
He didn't answer and I smiled, showing I wasn't going to answer either.  
Thinking about back home was hard. It was hard thinking how my mother preferred my brother to me, how I hardly had any friends and how all my past boyfriends were drug addicts or complete bastards.  
It was also really good to be somewhere that wasn't getting flooded by weeks of rain and no sunshine.  
And then there was the fiancé who broke my heart by choosing his job over me and moving over here, leaving me and our engagement behind.  
"Is it that bad?" Eliot asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.  
"Aren't there parts of your past that you wish had never happened?" I raised an eyebrow.  
"Oh, you have no idea."  
"Do you sense some chemistry floating between them two, Parker?" Hardison asked, his question being shared with everyone who listening.  
"The only chemistry between us is the knowledge of chemistry we learnt in school," Eliot fought back, like a brother would.  
"Actually, I never paid attention so I don't know jack shit about it," I admitted and I heard Parker laugh.  
"So, that would be the bad language Sophie told Nate about."  
"There's more where it come from too," I smiled to myself.  
"So, you don't sense the chemistry?" Hardison continued.  
"I don't like him and I sure as hell don't want chemistry with him. There's more chance of me running off with Clint Eastwood," I hissed.  
"Damn, that's a nasty thought," his reply made me giggle silently.  
I felt bad about lying and didn't want Eliot to think I didn't like him but I also didn't want to admit liking him when I had no chance.  
"When are you guys going for the gold?" Eliot asked.  
"Tonight," Nate answered.  
"Any sign of action on our end?" I asked, knowing the teams tech geek had rigged surveillance  
"Well, if there's more chemistry, it's possible," Hardison teased.  
"Up yours," Eliot fought back.  
"Shut up!" Nate shouted. "A few staff have walked past a few times but I get the feeling they'll wait till tonight too. That means we have more a chance of this going ahead without any trouble."  
"That will make a change," Parker's voice said.  
I looked at Eliot with my eyes wide.  
"This ain't a walk in the park, sugar, you'll have to get used to bruises and black eyes," he answered.  
"Great," I muttered under my breath.  
Nate went through the plans with Parker and Hardison and, while listening to his voice, I tilted my head back against the wall and dozed.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, the sun was starting to set and Sophie was telling us that we should make it sound like we have come back and are getting ready to go out for a meal, so we did just that.  
"I hope you're going to take me somewhere nice," I said, aloud for a change.  
"Well, I doubt they have a McDonalds here so you don't have to worry," Eliot flashed me a cheeky smile.  
"Funny."  
"Why don't you wear this dress, you know it's one of my favourites," he said while getting me a beer.  
He held one out to me and I shook my head.  
"You know I'm only going to wear it because it's a special occasion, right? And I'll only wear it if you wear this shirt."  
"You know I do anything to make you happy."  
Through the earwig, I could hear Hardison making puking noises and tried not to laugh. Like earlier, I unzipped my hoodie to make it sound real.  
"A drink before we go, Julie?" Eliot asked.  
"Let's leave it till we get back, you know it's always early morning we return," I answered,  
"And have a drink to help us sleep. I remember."  
"I think I have something else to help you sleep," I said and covered my face afterwards.  
"Well, lets get going to so we can get back. Maybe we'll be lucky and make it back before 2," he touched my hair and I slapped his hand away.  
"With the amount of pubs and clubs here, I doubt it." I tried to fake a laugh but I had an feeling it sounded really bad.  
"You look stunning, baby. Are you ready?" Eliot opened the door.  
"I'm starving so yeah, let's go, come on handsome," I tried to make it sound like I was really keen.  
"I'm right behind you," he said and swung the door shut.  
"Okay, we're going in," Nate said. "Sophie is distracting the manager in the bar."  
"I'll check the safe in the office," Parker said.  
"And I'm going to check search the workers quarters," Hardison added.  
"Good luck," I whispered.  
As the suspected thieves weren't really expected by us till it was dark, I laid on the bed, silently, and looked around the room, studying everything.  
The walls were a light shade of purple, the curtains made of silk and coloured light blue. The carpet almost matched the wallpaper and while my eyes followed it around the room, I noticed Eliot was comfortable still sat against the wall.  
I crept off the bed and sat where I was before.  
"What do we do if we need the toilet?" He whispered.  
"Put toilet paper in first; it stops the sound so you can't hear anything. I have no idea about flushing it though," I shrugged.  
He looked at me, a stupid expression on his face.  
"What? I know stuff."  
"I'll take your word for it," he replied and looked away.  
It was annoying how slow the sun set here compared to in England; it was almost two hours before the room was dark and we could only just see the outlines of each other.  
"It's almost 11, Spencer, shouldn't they be-" I called him by his last name and stopped when there was a sound of the lock on the door being picked.  
Eliot reacted by pointing to me and then to one side of the door and then pointing to himself and to the other side.  
I nodded, jumped up and ran to the left side of the door before it could open.  
When it did open, light flooded the bedroom and two men dressed in dark clothes, crept in and shut the door behind them, both with torches.  
When they were in the room and the door was closed, giving them no way to escape, I moved behind the guy closest to me and swung my right fist into his head while Eliot was taking care of the guy on his side.  
I ignored the pain shooting through my knuckles and up my arm and focused on my guy, who had cried out and dropped the torch he was carrying. I raced forward, grabbed it off the floor and swung it round with my left hand, hitting him across the face, the torch connecting with his cheekbone.  
"Bitch!" He shouted and held one hand to his face, using the other to swing a punch into the right side of my face splitting my lip. I didn't have enough time to react before he swung another punch, this time causing throbbing pain in my cheek, and sending me to my hands and knees.  
I was about to stand up when I saw the unconscious form of Eliot's guy on the floor.  
"You don't hit women!"  
Looking up when I heard Eliot shout, I saw him holding my guy by the neck and punch him a few times before knocking him out by slamming his head into the wall.  
"Are you okay?" I heard Sophie's worried voice.  
"Just a bloody lip and a bashed up cheek; I'll survive," I answered.  
"The artefacts have been recovered," Nate said and Eliot appeared at my side.  
"Let's get out of here."  
I looked at him through the dim light of the torch and liked how he looked with messy and sweaty hair.  
We both stared at each other for a few seconds and I was questioning what Hardison said about the chemistry between us but the moment was disturbed by Parker asking if we'd left yet.  
"Leaving now," I replied, pulling my hood up to hide what I could of my face.

Back at the team house, I was sat on the sofa, opposite Eliot and he had some tissues, holding them on my lip and a cold press against my cheek.  
"I can do this by myself," I rolled my eyes.  
After tonight, I had to admit to him that I was greatful for him stepping in and protecting me and this seemed to make it clear to him that maybe I didn't dislike him as much as he thought.  
"I've had more experience with this type of thing," Eliot responded to my comment.  
"Thanks for tonight, again."  
"I'm here to protect the group; with my strength and combat skills, that's what I do."  
"Wait, did you just reveal something about yourself? I'm impressed," I smiled at him.  
"So, do I have your trust yet?" He asked.  
"No. But I do like you a little bit now."  
"Chemistry," Hardison said in a sing-song voice from the kitchen.  
"You don't know what you're on about, there ain't no chemistry between us, you wouldn't know what chemistry between two people even looks like; that's why you're still a virgin," Eliot teased him.  
"Yeah, whatever," Hardison said and threw an orange, which Eliot dodged.  
"How's your hand?" Sophie came into the room, ignoring the two guys bickering.  
"Painful," I held it up to show the swelling.  
My aunt shook her head and gave me no choice when she dragged me to the hospital.  
After an hour of waiting and an x-ray, my knuckles and wrist were confirmed broken, and were encased in a plaster-cast.  
So much for my first job going smoothly!


	5. The Wedding Job Pt 1

A week later, I was with Parker after going to get sweets when Nate drove past up and stopped.  
"Want a lift to the headquarters?" He asked, through the open window.  
"Yeah, I've been here a week and I'm working with you but I haven't even been there yet," I looked from Nate to Parker and back again.  
"Shotgun!" Parker shouted and opened the passenger door, jumping in.  
I opened the door to the back and sat behind her.  
When we pulled up to the headquarters, I looked out the window at the huge building.  
"I hope there's an elevator," I mumbled.  
"Yeah, we're on the 15th floor," Nate replied and headed into the buildings car park.  
"Fifteenth floor . . .great," I said sarcastically.  
"Why? What's wrong with it being on the fifteenth floor?" Parker asked me and got out of the car.  
I had spent a week with the team but was still not used to Parker's bluntness and lack of empathy. "Nothing, there's nothing wrong it but I just-I mean I'm a little scared of heights," I held up a hand with a tiny space between my finger and thumb.  
Nate just smiled at me and led me to the lifts.  
When we walked in the Leverage headquarters, I had to admit I was impressed. It was space and had offices and a lounge-like area and a small kitchen area.  
"Not bad, huh?" Eliot asked, sat at a table.. "How's your arm?"  
Instead of answering, I just held up my arm with the cast; from the chair across from him, I could see Hardison watching us, still convinced, after a week, that there was a 'spark' between me and Eliot.  
I sat two spaces down from Eliot and looked to what seemed to be a conference room.  
"What's going on?" Nate asked.  
"Client meeting," Hardison answered.  
"I can see that. I thought I pick the clients." Nate sounded slightly ticked off. "Who is that crying?"  
"Teresa Palermo. Her husband owed money to the mob, and he took the fall for a murder the boss committed. She's a friend of Sophie's."  
I looked at Hardison, when he mentioned my aunts name and then looked back to the conference room.  
"I see. Stick around, Hardison. We're gonna have a meeting later about how things work around here."  
Eliot looked at me and pulled an 'uh oh' face.  
"This is probably a bad time to talk about Christmas, huh?" Hardison joked and when he and Eliot followed Nate to the conference room, I stood up and loitered behind them, listening.  
"Hey, Nate, this is my friend-"  
"Ms. Palermo. Yes, Hardison brought me up to speed. Go on. Please continue," Nate cut Sophie off and I caught a glimpse of him sitting down.  
"Well," my aunts friend took a deep breath. "After it happened, I told my husband to tell the truth. You know, we'd go in the program, start over. He said it was better like this, that we'd have a cushion. What a joke. Moscone never gave us a dime. We lost the restaurant, our house. The a couple of weeks ago, I saw this in our local newspaper," Ms. Palermo handed over a cut-out. "Moscone has a big wedding planned for his daughter - his princess - while my daughter only knows her father from the other side of bullet-proof glass. It's not right!" Ms. Palermo got angry.  
"No. No. it's-it's not right. But you know, uh, we're not detectives. And if you want to prove your husbands innocence, there are plenty of agencies I could recommend," Nate spoke to her.  
"Don't you think I've tried that? This is Nicky Moscone we're talking about. They all laughed!"  
"Yeah, I think, um, what Nate is trying to say is-is what exactly do you want from us?" Sophie asked her.  
"The note on the restaurant, $765,000. I want what Moscone promised us. No more, no less. If I could get the restaurant back, it would give my husband something to look forward to. Otherwise-"  
"Yeah. Well, we will discuss it and get back to you," Nate told Ms. Palermo rather shortly.  
She looked taken aback, but replied, "I understand. Thank you. Where did my daughter go?"  
I looked around but could see no child.  
"I think she is with Parker," Hardison said and immediately, everyone's faces took on a worried look.  
In a room by one of the offices, Parker was with a little girl and they were both working locks, which, within a few seconds, the girl had open.  
"6 seconds! Give it up! Good job!" Parker cried and high-fived the young child.  
I didn't know Parker long enough to be as shocked as every other member of the team seemed to be.  
Once Ms. Palermo and her daughter had left, I was taken to the main part by the others and there was another big table for us to sit around and a huge screen against the wall.  
"They have nowhere else to turn," Sophie said, sorrow in her voice.  
"Yeah, well, you know, her husband should have thought of that before he got in bed with Nicky Moscone. It's mob stuff. It's not the kind of case we take in," Nate refused.  
"I disagree."  
Nate was sat at the table and looked up at Sophie, standing next to him. "Well, if you disagree and you feel strongly about it, why don't you write her a check?"  
"Maybe I will, if it comes to that," Sophie raised her voice and argued back. "Oh wow, I really thought you'd get this, Nate. Teresa doesn't want to just get paid. She wants the man who destroyed her family to pay. You know, if it doesn't come from him, if he's not hurt by it in some way, then there's no justice."  
"Just take the mob out of it," Hardison, who was sat next to me, said.  
"What? Take the mob out of it?" Nate asked, stunned.  
"Hear me out. Isn't this just a breach of contract?"  
"These guys had a deal, right? And your boy, Ray, he lived up to his end, but Moscone didn't. And for that, there's not a court of law in this world which this lady can go to," Eliot spoke up.  
Eliot had a point and Parker seemed to think so too, adding, "which is exactly the kind of case we take."  
"Oh, come on. I don't-why Teresa?" Nate sounded exasperated.  
"I don't know. Well, her man's gone to jail for 15 years, and she's waiting for him. For 15 years. Do you have any idea how hard it is to wait for someone?"  
I noticed that Sophie had a certain look in her eye when she said this to Nate and I remembered years ago, she'd told me she was in love with someone she couldn't have. Now I know who she'd meant, and now she finally had him.  
"Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay, let's go rob Nicky Moscone, a guy who kills people and lives in our city. Yeah, let's do that," Nate said, his voice filled with sarcasm but agreeing to the job.  
When he had left the room, I dropped my head onto the table. "How am I supposed to help with a busted up arm?"  
"Your skills are in persuasion, we'll find something for you to do," Eliot said to me from across the table.  
"You don't smile much, do you?"  
"I don't have many reasons to smile," he shrugged.  
"I'm sure our girl over here could change that," Hardison winked at Eliot and put an arm around me.  
"Or some nice, brainless, bimbo supermodel," I raised an eyebrow and got up, heading for the lounge.  
An hour later, we were all knelt down on a hilltop that overlooked Nicky Moscone's mansion.  
"Typical mob McMansion. They've got the hideous gates, infinity pool, statues everywhere. Ah, how are we gonna handle surveillance?" Nate sighed.  
"We can't. That thing's a fortress, man. I clocked four armed guards, a Tikva security system. That thing's Israeli-made. It's used to protect their military bases," Hardison reeled off. "It's unhackable. Oh, and then there's the FBI parked around the corner."  
"FBI? Where?" Parker asked, looking through a camera lens.  
Hardison moved the camera in the direction of where she was supposed to look.  
"You see that crappy van that says 'plumber'?"  
"Did you say 'plumber'? That's their cover? Oh, that is so cute. It's like it's 1978 all over again," Sophie said, smiling.  
"Listen, you can't just walk into a place like that blind," Eliot said, knelt next to me.  
"Oh, yeah, that's true. If we can't get our surveillance the usual way. We'll just have to, you know, borrow somebody else's," Nate said.  
"This is where you play your part," my aunt tapped my shoulder. "And you, Hardison. Go and get suited up."

* * *

Me and Hardison stood outside the FBI van, dressed as agents and Hardison knocked.  
An oldish man with grey hair opened the door. "Yes?"  
"Relax. We're with the bureau. Howdy," Hardison held up a hand. "Special Agent Thomas. This is Special Agent Hagen. She's fresh out of Quantico. I'm showing her all the hotspots, you know. Uh-huh. Oh, by the way, we got your memo. We're moving it up the chain."  
"What? Hey, g-great. Thanks. Well, come on in. Sorry bout the heat, and the smell," the agent held the door open. "I'm Taggert, by the way, and this is McSweeten."  
We both saw the other agent sitting in the van.  
"Wow, is this vest lining Kevlar?" I asked, flirting with McSweeten and fingering a bullet-proof vest that was hanging up.  
"Uh . . .no. It-it's rayon. Yeah, it breathes better than Kevlar. But I have it in my locker," McSweeten replied, nervously.  
As I passed him, I swiped his badge and passed it to Hardison.  
"I wish I could give you a sample, but the bug we planted in Moscone's barbecue is pretty spotty," Taggert looked at Hardison.  
"The bug?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Singular?" Hardison asked in disbelief.  
"Absolutely."  
"Good-good work. Good work. You know what? I'm kind of into this. May I?"  
"Please," Taggert moved so Hardison could get to the computer.  
"Do you have any snacks?" I asked McSweeten, smiling.  
"Uh, yeah. I've got a-a meat stick, if you want it. But, um . . .well, it's half-eaten," he answered.  
"Ah, never mind," I tried not to grimace.  
"Oh, okay, I see what the problem is here. You're bumping into baby-monitor frequency," Hardison said from under to computer.  
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I thought I heard some crying," Taggert said and I could picture Hardison rolling his eyes.  
Even I had to admit that he was really dumb. I wasn't that smart but I still knew what Hardison meant.  
He fiddled around and said, "see if that clears it up."  
"Yeah. Great," Taggert smiled. "all right. All right. Thanks."  
Getting out of the van, I picked up McSweeten's badge, that Hardison had purposely dropped after scanning, and I pinned it onto his vest.  
"Thanks for the tour," I smiled and winked at him and walked away.  
"Come back anytime," he called after me, a little too eager.  
"All right, stay strong, brother," Hardison said to Taggert.  
After we'd all got back to the headquarters and Hardison had fiddled about with the FBI badge on the computer, Nate sent Eliot into the local FBI offices and me and Hardison were sat around the table, listening to Eliot on loudspeaker.  
"I'm in. Guide me."  
"Okay, I found the server with the Moscone surveillance files, room 718," Hardison gave directions. "All you have to do is rip them on my flash drive and run."  
"I don't have to type anything, right?"  
"No, just plug it in. It does the rest."  
"All right, cause you know I just learned the Photoshop thing you told me," Eliot said and I giggled as quietly as I could while Hardison replied, "I-I know. Baby steps."  
"So I just plug it in?"  
"Now, audio files, they can take a little while to run, but uh, the servers are pretty loud, so that should give you some cover."  
"It's tapes," Eliot said.  
"Wha-hold, wait. Did y-you just say 'tapes'?" Hardison asked, shocked.  
"I just said 'tapes'!"  
"Cassette tapes?"  
Through the speaker, we heard a loud rattle. "Your little thing, it's not gonna work."  
"But at lease you ain't got to type nothing," Hardison tried to make light of the situation.  
"Hardison, how am I supposed to get of the FBI offices with a boxful of surveillance tapes, huh?" Eliot was started sounding pissed.  
"Punch somebody."  
"Oh, I'm gonna punch somebody."  
When Eliot said this, I had to laugh; it was just the way he said it that I found funny.  
"Is that Sherrie? Are you laughing at me? You think this is funny?"  
"Um . . .no," I answered, starting to feel nervous.  
Hardison said nothing by typed something on his laptop and through the speaker, we could hear the FBI fire alarms go off.  
"You're welcome," he said.  
"Why couldn't you have just done that off the bat?" Eliot hissed and we listened to him make his way out with the tapes.  
I looked at Hardison and said, "now do you believe there's no chemistry?"  
"Oh, I believe it, but I think there's tension now, too."  
"You love to live in your own little fantasy world, huh?"  
"Sometimes it's better than this world," he answered.  
"Amen," I agreed with him.

* * *

For the next two days, I spent my time reading or watching TV or having Nate teach me to play chess. Hardison, on the other hand, spent it listening to the tapes.  
"How was it?" Parker asked, when he walked into the Headquarters.  
"You try listening to 74-straight hours of surveillance of the mob . . .on a walkman."  
Boy, he didn't sound happy.  
"Okay, what did you learn?" Nate asked him.  
"Well, first of all, uh, how great 'Jersey Boys' is; they're fantastic. Really man, they are-"  
"No, what did you learn about where Moscone keeps his money?"  
Hardison pressed a button on a remote and the huge screen on the wall came to life.  
"He keeps it in offshore accounts under his wife's name, Heather, to protect it from the feds," Hardison told Nate.  
"Can you break the codes?"  
"The codes? The codes to the Cayman Band and Trust, where the Cali cartel and the African dictators keep all their dirty money? The ones that Moscone changes anytime he damn well pleases? Like, it's c-come on. Dude, are you kidding me?" Hardison rambled on.  
"You know, you're-you're very negative lately," Nate responded.  
"Yeah," Eliot agreed and Parker nodded; I didn't know him well enough to agree so I stayed quiet.  
"And the sass, it-it doesn't help. Where-where does Moscone keep the liquid assets?" Nate asked.  
"Okay, I took a number of the daily deliveries his capos make to the house, and I cross-referenced them with his declared income and his spending habits. I'd say he's got at least $2 million stashed right here."  
"Wow, so you are smart," I laughed and Hardison just smiled back at me.  
Nate sighed. "So we're back to the beginning. Um, all we need is a-is a way in, right?"  
"This guy. I could hit one of the bagmen before they get in. Roll the dice on a big payout," Eliot said.  
"Or we could tunnel from the neighbours?" Parker suggested.  
"What's going on here? What's-" Nate pointed to the screen and was interrupted by Hardison.  
"Oh, uh, he's just putting up a tent for Moscone's daughter's wedding. It's happening this weekend. There's a lots of conversations between him and the wife about that."  
"Let's hear one," Sophie said, more of a demand than a request.  
Hardison pressed a button and the speakers spat out an argument.  
"_I am overwhelmed! I need help!" _A female voice that belonged to the wife, Heather, shouted.  
"_Overwhelmed? You're the one who wanted this huge fiasco_!" A male voice, Moscone, shouted back.  
"That's Moscone," Eliot whispered to me.  
"_No, no. No. For your daughter_."  
"_Yeah, unless it's your skank yoga instructor, by the way. You can't even touch your toes_."  
"It's a bit like an opera, isn't it?" Sophie said, humour in her voice.  
"You mean cause I want to run away?" Eliot replied.  
"Ditto," I added and he looked across the table at me.  
The short staring contest was broken by Nate laughing.  
"Well, now, if that isn't an invitation, I don't know what it."  
Hardison stopped the tape and Nate explained to all of us that we were going to go in and act as help for the wedding; Eliot was going to be the chef, Parker was going to be the maid; Hardison was going to be the DJ; Sophie was going to be the wedding planner and to top it all off, he was going to be the priest.  
"I can't do anything with this," I held up my arm.  
"Yes you can, you're going to be Sophie . . .or Ruby's assistant. If she needs any help, you're there to change their minds, force them in the other direction," Nate said to me.  
"Gee, thanks. I can't get enough of weddings," I said, sarcastically and he raised his eyebrow at me.  
"Just stick by me," Sophie squeezed my arm.  
When Nate looked at Sophie, she shook her head and then  
The plans were made to go the next morning so it would give us that day and the next to try and locate the money at the mansion. Until then, we were going to be sorting out what we were going to wear.  
Come morning, we were all gathered in the living room of our home and I couldn't hold in my laughter when I saw Eliot and Parker.  
"Oh god, Eliot, you look like a sensei," I sat on the sofa and took a deep breath.  
"Don't, don't diss the outfit," Hardison hissed at me at the same time Eliot was saying, "I thought we figured out that you know not to laugh at me."  
His voice was a no-bullshit voice so I fidgeted and looked at Parker instead.  
"Aren't those glasses a little . . .big," I bit my lip, smiling.  
"Do you want your other arm in a cast as well?" Parker sneered and Eliot crossed his arms, smiling at her comment. "Anyway, you think you look better?"  
I knew she was referring to the pants-suit I was wearing. "I didn't say you looked bad," I shrugged and looked from Eliot to Parker.  
"Can you sort your problems with each other out later? We have a wedding to get to," Nate said, walking out.  
"See, now you don't look so bad, Father," I said.  
"Bless you. Now let's move."


	6. The Wedding Job Pt 2

Sophie rang the doorbell as we all stood behind her, waiting and ready.  
"Mrs. Moscone? Ruby Holden, Peerless events. Your wedding planner."  
"What? I didn't hire a wedding plan-"  
"Oh, your husband hired me. He didn't tell you? He said something about you being . . .overwhelmed," Sophie didn't give Heather a chance to speak and used the words from the tapes we'd heard to butter her up.  
"Oh, well, uh, Mrs, uh . . ."  
"You can call me Ruby."  
Heather sneered. "Ruby, that's cute. How shall I put this? Uh, everyone I've hired for this wedding-the caterer, the florist, the band-is a frigging moron. But I'm gonna have to live with it because the wedding is two days away, and, frankly, I don't see how you can come in and magically fix everything. What are you, Mary Poppins?"  
Nate leant forward a little and looked at me.  
I nodded and whispered, loud enough for just them to hear, "time to go to work."  
Appearing at the door beside Sophie, I said, "Hello Mrs. Moscone, I'm Emma, Ruby's assistant. She really is a miracle with these things and not only does she have my help, she has the help of the best people we could find," I stepped to the side so Heather could see Nate, Eliot, Parker and Hardison.  
She looked at the team, to Sophie, to me and I gave her my sweetest smile.  
"You won't regret it, we'll make your daughter's big day amazing."  
"Well, let's hope so. Come in."  
She widened the door and I followed her and Sophie in.  
As the team walked forward, Hardison couldn't hold back a "well, I'll be damned, she is a sweet talker."  
Too busy getting into position and making a start, we didn't have time to talk so it was an hour later when we all managed to slide in our earwigs.  
I could hear Nate and Eliot in the kitchen and paid more attention when I heard Heather enter.  
"Okay, hors d'oeuvres."  
"Yes, ma'am. Stuffed mushrooms, pine nuts, kiss of basil, some sun-dried tomatoes, and the finishing touch, lemon juice," Eliot said and seconds later, the far-away sound of spitting.  
"Does this look like a food court? Does it? I want high-end food. High-end! What are you-" her voice faded away as she left the kitchen.  
"Sherrie, where are you? Get here and make her like my food," Eliot said.  
"I'm sure the food is really nice, she's just a bitch," I said back.  
"I know."  
"What they don't eat, I will later."  
"I don't think it's his food he wants you to eat, girl," Hardison's voice said.  
"Hardison, I got a knife in my hand, don't make me come and look for you," Eliot growled.  
"Chill bro, just a harmless joke," he replied.  
I was about to add my own comment when I heard Heather shouting out, "Ruby! Ruby, get here now!"  
"Can we find the money so we can hurry up and get out of here? Eliot, have you got a spare knife?" I asked, clenching the only fist I could.  
I walked down toward the kitchen, listening to Sophie instead of Eliot's reply. "Was that you screaming my name?"  
"Oh, yes, yes. we're looking at dresses for the bridal party, and I wanted your opinion," I heard Heather say in the background.  
"You look lovely," Sophie complimented the bridesmaid.  
"You don't think it makes me look fat?"  
"Oh, definitely. I mean, why do you think I had to let out the waist? To make you look less skinny?" Parker said and I started laughing.  
"I'm really starting to like you, Parker," I said.  
"She . . .she didn't mean that," Sophie sympathised when the bridesmaid started crying.  
"Oh, suck it up, Cindy. You'll be fine. Actually, I could not agree more. Finally, someone around here who knows what they're talking about," Heather said.  
"You're right, Sherrie. She is a bitch," Hardison said.  
"I checked the library and the maid's room. No sign of the money. Now, we need to focus. We only have one day left," said Nate.  
I'd made my way to the kitchen and Nate had left, so it was just Eliot in there.  
"So, can't we just, like, kill them both and then find the money?" I asked him and got the whole team saying, "no," in my ear.  
"Sophie didn't mention you had a bad side," Eliot raised an eyebrow at me while he diced carrots.  
"I don't have a bad side, I just . . .have a temper, and bad impatience," I answered.  
"You have no idea," Sophie agreed.  
I reached over and grabbed a cherry tomato, popping it into my mouth.  
"Hey! Hey, what do you think you're doing? Stop eating my food!" Eliot cried at me.  
"Okay, sorry Gordon Ramsey," I backed away.  
"Who did you just call me?"  
"Gordon Ramsey. Famous English chef; really bad temper, always swearing, always shouting. And you obviously have a short temper too so I'm going to . . .go," I carried on walking backwards but stopped when he paused his knife.  
"Why not just try to persuade me?"  
"Something tells me it won't work with you," I shook my head.  
"Try it and find out," Eliot was flirting again.  
"I just said we need to focus, now if you two have done flirting or teasing or whatever, can you get back to work?" Nate ordered.  
Eliot waved his knife at me and as quick as I could, I ran forward, grabbed another tomato and ran away.  
"I'm not going to let you get away with that," he said, playfully.  
Hardison coughed while adding "chemistry" between it.  
"Hardison," Eliot growled and got the reply, "okay, sorry man, I won't mention it again."  
"Good. Now focus and work," Nate said again.

* * *

Back at the headquarters that night, we were sat round the table, listening to the bugs.  
"_Well, you tell that bastard, if he wants that money so bad, I'll give it to him at the reception, huh? And he better bring Maria one hell of a gift_," Moscone said.  
"Okay, that means the deal is going down at the wedding, probably involving all of Moscone's available cash," Nate told us all.  
"So, basically, we go in. We've got to find the money. Then we've got to get it under the noses of 200 guests," Eliot said, his eyebrows raised.  
"While we run the wedding?" Added Parker.  
"Hey, we find the money, we get out before it starts. You know, I swear, I never understood the lengths people go with these things. I mean, the endless-you know, the dresses and the endless toasts and the crying. And-and, you know, it's just-it's unbelievable to me. And everyone has a role to play, right? And the bride and groom at the end of the day, they go home with a pile of cash. And if you really think about it, the whole thing is just a giant, giant, con," Nate rambled.  
Sophie got up and from the look on her face, she wasn't happy; she started to leave but turned back.  
"Well . . .aren't you romantic," she said and then did leave.  
Parker followed her lead and left the headquarters, heading in her own direction and me, Eliot and Hardison all migrated to the kitchen.  
"Yo. No way in hell I could ever imagine getting married. I mean, it's just-it's just a piece of paper," Hardison said, pulling a beer from the fridge.  
Eliot just looked at him, munching on his apple.  
"I take it you've never been married."  
"No," Eliot answered.  
"Ever come close?"  
When Eliot hesitated, Hardison asked, "what was her name?"  
"It was a girl I grew up with. But anyway, she married somebody else, so . . ."  
"Hot-hot damn, what did you do?"  
There was no answer, just a hard stare so Hardison turned to me. "How about you? You ever been married?"  
"No, and I sure as hell ain't ever getting married either," I said, bluntly.  
"Damn, you came close too, huh?"  
"What gives you that idea?" I asked.  
"Well, why else would you be that dead against it?" Hardison said and swigged. "So, you came really close. What happened?"  
I took a big swallow and a deep breath. I thought about the person who had broke my heart and just couldn't answer the question. Instead, I turned and left, saying nothing.  
Eliot and Hardison looked at each other.  
"So, 'fess up to me, brother, you know you can trust me. You like her, right?"  
"You just don't give up, do you?" Eliot rolled his eyes and took another bite of his apple.  
"Not when I know I'm right," Hardison crossed his arms and stared at Eliot, letting him know he wasn't going to let this go.  
"Do we have to discuss this while on a job?"  
"You can end it right now by answering me."  
"You like her," Eliot looked at Hardison.  
"Not like I like Parker but you do; like her like I like Parker, I mean. Don't you?" Hardison said.  
"All I'm going to say is that I like her more than I should, make what you want out of that," Eliot said and walked away.

* * *

The next day, we were all rushing around, doing our thing and looking for the money when we were stopped by Nate's voice through our earwigs.  
"Everybody stop what they're doing. Meet me at the southwest corner now."  
I started making my way when I passed a bedroom and saw the Moscone's daughter, Maria, crying.  
"I'll be there in a minute, I just have to deal with something," I said and a chorus of joined voices deafened me. "Ssh! It's nothing to do with the money so just . . .ssh!"  
I ignored the questions and walked into the bedroom.  
"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked Maria.  
"What's wrong? Everything. Adam and I wanted something small. But Heather said dad needed to do this to wine and dine his business people. But now I realise, it's all about her!" She shouted and wept.  
"Like your feelings don't matter. Like you don't even exist," I said, knowing how she felt from past experiences.  
"Yes."  
"I'm gonna tell you something, and I want you to listen to me, okay, cause I learned this the hard way. Do not put your faith in a man."  
The rest of the team were all stood together, listening to me.  
"What the hell happened to her, man?" Hardison asked but because I was ignoring the voices, I didn't register it.  
"She had her heart broken, no . . .not broken, shattered, by a man that basically had to choose her or his work," Sophie said, quietly.  
"And he chose the work," Nate guessed and Sophie nodded.  
"Damn, that's cold," Hardison shook his head.  
"Is that why she's here?" Parker asked.  
"I can't say," Sophie said and they went back to listening to me.  
"Men don't communicate, so what do we do? We project onto them about us and our lives together. It's all rubbish. We don't know what they want. You want to know what they're thinking about when they're off staring into space, looking all romantic?" I asked her and Maria nodded. "The job. It's all about work to them. That's all they care about. My advice? Do not put your faith in a man."  
I dropped a box of tissues on the bed beside her and left the bedroom to join the team, appearing at the same time Eliot did, who had also heard but didn't show any knowledge of it.  
"What is it? I got bacon on," he huffed.  
"The Butcher is here," Parker said.  
"Does he have the baby lamb chops?"  
"No. The Butcher of Kiev," Hardison said, putting an emphasis on it.  
"Who's The Butcher?" I asked, looking around, from face to face.  
"An . . .enemy of Eliot's. Think he'll recognise you?" Nate asked Eliot.  
"Yeah, I think he'd remember me," Eliot said grimly.  
I'm guessing this was a part of his dark past that I didn't know about.  
"Okay, well how is it that we know how good 'Jersey boys' is, but we missed this somehow?"  
Hardison looked at Nate. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Tone it down, brother. Okay, first of all, the sass? It's not helpful."  
"But you were listening to the tapes. How did you miss this?" Nate asked.  
"Why are y'all looking at me? Okay, look, the guest list didn't raise any red flags with the feds," Hardison said, innocently.  
Nate sighed. "Okay, listen, we have a world-class killer here who's going to I.D. Eliot and we are not prepared for this at all. So I am going to pull the plug. I was everyone to meet me at the van in two minutes."  
"I'm staying," Sophie spoke up.  
"I'm sorry. You're-you're what?"  
"You're staying? Sophie, Sophie, it's the Butcher of Kiev," Nate hissed.  
"Have you ever been to Kiev? The cake-maker of Kiev would whup all of our ass. This is _The Butcher_," Hardison said.  
"Uh-huh," Sophie said to him and then turned to Nate. "Is this about fear of the Russian mob, or fear of intimacy?"  
"Oh my god."  
"Listen, I made a promise to my friend Teresa and I'm not going to let her down. And that bride in there-what's her name-"  
"Maria," I told my aunt.  
"I'm not gonna let her down, either. So you guys can go. I'm staying. I'll do this by myself if I have to."  
"You won't. If she's staying then so am I," I told Nate and stood next to Sophie, looping my arm through hers.  
"Okay, fine. Sophie, Hardison, Parker, find the money. Sherrie, help however you can. Eliot, stay away from the Butcher," Nate said, beaten.  
The wedding music started and he looked toward the garden.  
"Uh, me . . .I have a wedding to officiate."  
And with that, we all went our separate ways.  
"You're not gay, are you?" Parker asked, walking beside me.  
"What?! No!" I cried out.  
"Okay, just what you said to the bride, you really seem to dislike men."  
"I don't dislike men, I just haven't met a good one yet," I shrugged.  
"Nate, Hardison and Eliot are good guys," Parker said.  
"Yeah, I guess so," I agreed and we both walked in opposite directions.  
I headed to the main bedroom and after checking it, told them it was clean.  
"Downstairs is clear. That leaves one place where the money could be stashed. The screening room," Parker said and I could hear on the stairs below me, heading to the kitchen. "Go."  
"These peaches aren't going to cook themselves, Parker," Eliot argued with her.  
"Sorry, Emeril."  
"What was that?"  
"You heard me," Parker said and headed to the screening room.  
"Yeah. I'll show you. Bam!"  
"Okay, chill out, Hong Kong Phooey," I joked to Eliot.  
"Oh no, girl, no, no, no, don't diss his cooking," Hardison warned me.  
"I wasn't dissing his cooking, I was dissing his outfit . . .again" I said back.  
"Then get me out of it," Eliot flirted.  
"Don't tempt me."  
"Ooh, we gonna get some verbal sex, Parker," Hardison laughed.  
"No you ain't, Hardison. You've heard of a joke, haven't you? You use them all the time," I said.  
"Yeah but Eliot-"  
"Eliot knows she's not being serious, right?" Eliot cut him off by asking me.  
"Right, at least someone's learning when I'm joking and when I'm not."  
It wasn't long after that, that clapping was heard and Moscone and Sergei were on their way to make the deal.  
"They're going to the screening room. Parker, you got the money?" Eliot asked.  
"Not yet," Parker replied.  
"All right, they're on their way. Get out now."  
"Not an option," Parker replied.  
"Sherrie, where are you?" Eliot asked me.  
"Hanging around upstairs, I can see them going in. Parker hide," I whispered.  
"I'm hidden," she whispered back.  
The next thing we heard put a screeching break on the job.  
"Money gone. Sergei not happy."  
"Keep a lid on things until I figure out what happened. Eliot, get to the screening room right now," Nate ordered.  
I started heading down the steps, going to find Nate and Sophie but saw three men walking up the stairs below so I did a quick retreat.  
"Going somewhere, my friend?" I heard a Russian accent in the kitchen and moved down to the top step, crouching to see what was happening, ready to call the others if it seemed Eliot needed help.  
I watched a guy fly out of the kitchen and roll down the stairs and I covered my mouth to smother the gasp.  
"Now I kill you," the Butcher said to Eliot.  
"Ooh, you're not the deejay. I was supposed to meet him in here, Shh," Parker cried out, acting drunk. "Hey, the father of the bride! He's in here! Everybody's been looking for you. You're in so much trouble. Come on, party's in full swing. He's in here!"  
"Nice one, Parker," I whispered, listening to her and then watching her pull Moscone out of the room by his hand.  
When I turned back to the kitchen, Eliot was on the table and the Butcher was choking him.  
"Now I kill you!"  
"Nate! Get to Eliot!" I hissed and stood up to run down the stairs, taking my eyes off them.  
"It burns!" The Butcher shouted.  
'Oh god, what did Eliot do to him?' I thought to myself.  
"It's the lemon juice," Eliot said as me and Nate both came into the kitchen at the same time through opposite doors.  
"You just kill a guy with an appetizer?" Nate asked, stunned.  
"I don't know. Maybe."  
After looking at Eliot with an expression of surprised amazement, Nate turned and left.  
"I didn't need you to call for help," Eliot said to me, panting, out of breath. "I don't need help, I can take care of myself."  
"Well, how am I supposed to know that? Sorry, okay? I'll remember that next time I see someone choking you," I snapped and walked off the other way.  
In the earwig, from the tent, we all heard Hardison say "hey people, what's happening? I just got word that there's a storm brewing in the Rockies, so if these kids want to make it to Kansas by tomorrow, they got to go."  
I'd made my way to an entrance to the garden and watched the guests boo.  
"Oh, yeah, yeah, look, hey, hey, hey, hey. If y'all don't want them driving through golf-ball-sized hail, let's give them a good send-off, come on people," Hardison carried on.  
"Nate. Nate, can you hear me?" I heard Sophie speaking to Nate.  
"Okay, yeah. Where's Heather?"  
"I got her," my aunt said and I listened to her confront Heather. "Hey, you miserable shrew. You are never gonna bother those kids again, ever. And you better start brushing up on your Russian cause your husband's about to discover you're the one who sold him out."  
"Yeah, you tell her," I egged Sophie on.  
"Ow! That hurt! Nate, I lost her," Sophie said and I ran to find her.  
Parker found her at the same time I did and we both helped her up and hurried to the kitchen where Nate, Eliot and Hardison were.  
"Where's the cash?" Parker asked.  
"Yeah, where's Teresa's money?" Sophie demanded, looking at Nate, who was sipping wine, and Nate looked to Eliot. "Oh, Nate, what have you done this time?"  
"Ah. Wait for it."  
Hardison grabbed the phone that Nate handed him and started scribbling things down onto a pad.  
"You know all those offshore accounts that Moscone has, you know, the ones in Heather's name? Well, now that she's blown town, guess who's on the phone changing the passwords. Can you do anything with those?" Nate aimed the last bit at Hardison.  
"Oh, I can do everything with them."  
"Wait, wait, wait. I-I still don't understand. What happened to the cash?" Sophie asked again.  
"Oh, the cash. Well . . ." Nate said and we all looked at Eliot, who smiled and looked told us all that the bag the Butcher was carrying was full of money so, on Nate's orders, he put it in the truck of the car.  
"So, padre, a wedding's just a big con, huh?" Sophie walked past Nate and was followed by Parker.  
"I never said there was anything wrong with that," Nate shrugged, innocently.  
I watched him leave and started to head to the exit.  
"This is pretty good, man," Hardison said, eating an appetizer.  
That was enough to convince me to stop and grab one.  
"Thanks man. I squeeze, like, fresh lemon juice on it," Eliot said.  
He, too, started to leave but stopped when he was in front of me.  
"Thanks. For calling Nate, even though I didn't need it; good to know there's someone watching my back."  
When he was gone, Hardison stood there, grinning.  
"Oh, don't start with that," I rolled my eyes.  
"But you do have a crush on him; Parker told me."  
"What?! I'm gonna-"  
"I'm the only one she told, no worries, but whatever . . .or whoever, messed you up, Eliot ain't like that," Hardison put an arm around me.  
"Does it really matter?" I asked.  
Not willing to break Eliot's trust, Hardison just shrugged. "I guess not but you never know, he might get bored of models."  
"Ha!"  
"Hey, are you guys coming?" Eliot appeared at the door.  
"Yeah, now this whole crappy wedding is over and done with I just wanna get out of here," I sighed and walked out the door and away from the mansion.  
That night, at the Brava Cusina, we all shouted "Surprise!" when Sophie brought Teresa in.  
"What the-"  
"It's all yours," Sophie handed her the keys.  
"What? I don't know what to say," Teresa looked around, speechless.  
"Come sit down," Sophie tugged her hand.  
"I wish Ray were here to see this."  
"Wait for it," Hardison smirked and turned his laptop round to face Teresa.  
On the screen, a reporter was giving a news update. "_Moscone's arrest casts a new light on the murder of Russian hitman Anatoli Sirosky, a murder LA restaurant owner Raymond Palermo was convicted of five years ago. Mr. Palermo's attorney's are already filing appeals_."  
"Daddy's coming home!" Teresa cried, happily.  
The team all cheered and I joined in as Eliot brought out some food to put on the tables.  
"Hot plates! Hot plates! Hey, come on now."  
When I looked at him, I had to look twice because he still had the bandana on but now just a wife-beater and jeans; damn, he looked good. His arms were huge and muscley, his chest looked so good.  
Thank god Eliot hadn't noticed me staring, but Parker had and she kicked me under the table. I looked away innocently and started drinking, determined to put the past job and the memories of close weddings and engagements and anything romantic, out of my mind.  
It worked too, because hours later, I was sat with the others at home and was slurring, drunkenly.  
"Ssso, what'sss our next job? Or isss it too sssoon to think of that yet?"  
"Why don't you go to bed, this weekend's probably been rough on you," Sophie said to me.  
"Yeah, I think we're all going to bed anyway," Nate agreed and the others seemed to join in and all stood up.  
When I stood up, I swayed and grabbed Parker. "Oopsss, ssssorry Parker."  
"Whatever," Parker just said and pushed me all the way to my room.  
Twenty minutes later, when I was lying on my side in bed, Parker walked out and into Eliot.  
"I'll stay and keep an eye on her tonight. Should be Sophie doing it but I sleep the least so, hey."  
"Fine, just don't bitch about it." Parker walked off to her room.  
In my room, Eliot sat against my wall and closed his eyes.  
"Eliot, what happened? With that girl you grew up with?" I asked, lying on my back.  
He hesitated but thought of the conversation he and Hardison had had the night before.  
"I liberated Croatia," he told me, honestly.  
I was too drunk for it to sink in what that actually meant.  
"Ssso you chossse work over her too?"  
Eliot knew the meaning behind me adding the word 'too' but didn't mention it. Instead, he answered, "no, I didn't. I had work to do . . .I . . .joined the military and I thought she'd wait but . . .she didn't."  
"I would have waited," I mumbled, rolling onto my side, falling asleep. "Yeah, I'd have waited for you."


	7. The Tap Out Job Pt 1

The next morning, I woke up, aware that I was alone in my room, and also aware of what I'd muttered before falling asleep. Slightly embarrassed, I hoped Eliot wouldn't mention it to me; I got dressed and headed downstairs to see who was around.  
"Hey, hey, here she comes! How's your hangover?" Hardison shouted as I entered the living room.  
"What hangover? I don't get hangovers." I said as I jogged past him and grabbed a bowl of cereal.  
"How-I mean-why-damn. Do you not have blackouts either?"  
"Nope," I sat on a sofa next to Parker. "I remember everything. Although I do tend to say things I wish I hadn't."  
I avoided looking at Eliot but had to when he asked, "do you feel better . . .after this weekend?"  
"Now it's over and done with, yeah, back to normal," I answered and Eliot winked at me.  
My only response was to scowl at him and carry on eating. For the rest of the day, I was sat in my room, browsing the net for nothing in particular and watching DVD's. Sometimes a girl just wants to be on her own.  
The following day, we were all called to the Headquarters.  
"We've got a job," I said as me, Parker, Eliot and Hardison shuffled into the elevator.  
"How do you know that?" Eliot asked as we passed the floors.  
"Gut feeling. Another one of my . . .skills that Sophie didn't mention is that when I get a gut feeling 97 and a half percent of the time, it's right."  
I walked out and into the Headquarters before I could get questioned about it.  
Once were all sat down, Nate gave us the short version.  
"Okay a boy's dad got hold of me. He's a fighter that got injured and his career has been wrecked. His dad, the man who got in touch with me says the fight was chemically fixed, meaning-"  
"The victim was drugged," Eliot finished, on a guess.  
"The gym owner is also a fight promoter, Jed Rucker, supposedly investing everything he has in a fake television network. So, let's go to the hotel and talk to the dad," Nate stood up.  
"Wait, where's Sophie?" I asked.  
"Shopping . . .I think. Parker, you go and find her. Eliot and Hardison, you ride together; Sherrie, you ride with me."  
I nodded nervously, my gut kicking in again, telling me I was in trouble.  
In the car with Nate, on the way to the hotel, he started talking.  
"I don't think it's any secret that you like Eliot."  
"What? I don't like him anymore than the others," I lied.  
Nate looked over at me, quickly. "Don't lie to me, I see things. I have no problem if he was to show an interest in you, just like I have no problem with Hardison and Parker. But, I think I should tell you, tell you-not warn you, that if something-something were to happen between you, that you should be careful You have seen how short his temper is; Eliot can be dangerous and he-he does have a lot of enemies."  
"Nate, you may be dating my aunt but that doesn't make you my uncle. And I will deal with what you've told me when I need to, if I ever need to," I said, dreading how he was going to react. Instead, he just smiled.  
"Sometimes, you're just like a little Sophie," he said as he pulled into the hotel car park.  
In the hotel room, the victim's dad, Jack, was sat on the bed, telling us what happened, while me and Eliot were in the next room, listening.  
"Somebody drugged his water. It's an old boxing trick. He couldn't defend himself, and . . .he's still in the hospital. Mark was undefeated." Jack handed Nate some photos. "A couple days before the fight, Rucker told him to take a dive."  
"I thought Rucker was your son's manager," Nate said.  
"He was. But with Mark being the favourite, he got great odds on tank, so we fired him."  
"And I guess that news didn't go over so well, huh?"  
"Rucker ain't a man used to hearing 'no' around here," Jack answered.  
"You must have known that Rucker was gonna try something during the-during the fight. Something dirty," Nate said, holding the photos.  
"I never thought he'd take it his far. Besides, we couldn't pass up that purse. It's five grand. That's the biggest payday we've ever seen. See, I lost my job when the plant closed. Mark gave up his wrestling scholarship to come home and help out. So he poured asphalt all day, and he trained all night. Only reason we can afford the hospital is cause of Jonny."  
"Jonny?" Nate asked.  
"The ring doctor. He's my cousin. Mark was real good, Mr. Ford. He had a shot, a real shot, at moving up in the sport. Now, Jonny says he'll never fight again," Jack said.  
Nate just looked at him, making up his mind.  
While we were listening and Nate was with Jack, Hardison had got a room and Parker had turned up with Sophie.  
When we got in there, we all crowded around Hardison's laptop while he filled us in. .  
"That's Jed Rucker. He runs a homegrown mixed martial arts league here in Nebraska. They have a very strong wrestling tradition here, so the talent pool is pretty deep."  
"Wrestlers have a good base for a blended training approach. They can go from that to jujitsu, kickboxing, judo," Eliot said and I stared at him. This man had some serious fighting knowledge behind him.  
"Rucker promotes fights," Parker said.  
"And manages fighters, taking a cut every step of the way," Hardison added.  
"Yeah, you know, plus he's not above fixing bouts, as the Howorths found out. We've dealt with some lowlifes, but when I heard about this guy . . ." Nate said.  
"That was a nice takedown. Good ground and pound. He's a little sloppy in a closed guard, but it's a solid armbar. I mean, you can tell this guy's a wrestler. This ain't the UFC, but these guys go skills," Eliot said, watching a fight on the laptop.  
I was about to ask how Eliot knew all this but I had to stop and laugh when I saw Sophie, sitting on the chair, covering her face. "You're can't be serious, Sophie."  
"Hardison, where did you get these?" Nate asked.  
"Online. They're viral videos. See, Rucker doesn't have a TV deal, it's pretty much a bare-bones operation," Hardison explained.  
"You call this a sport?" Sophie gasped from behind a pillow.  
"Yeah, this is a sport. These are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world. Are you kidding me? It's about precision, technique, skill," Eliot stood up and walked behind the sofa.  
"And I'm taking a wild guess you used to be a part of it," I raised an eyebrow at him.  
"See, you're getting to know more about me, happy?"  
"So, it's like cockfighting?" Sophie asked.  
"It's not a cockfight. All right?" Eliot was obviously passionate about this. "Let me show you something, Hardison. Come here. Can I borrow you?" He asked me.  
"Yeah right," I held up my arm.  
"Okay. All right. Square up. Remember what I showed you?" Eliot pulled Parker instead.  
He'd obviously been teaching her to fight, which I thought maybe wasn't a good idea.  
I watched the pair of them square up and Parker raise her fists in front of her.  
"Are you . ." Hardison laughed and started jogging and jumping on the spot.  
"There's three phases to an MMA," Eliot paused to look at Hardison, still jumping around and the look caused him to stop. "To an MMA fight, okay? One, striking."  
There was no hesitation as Parker punched Hardison hard in the face.  
"Nice," Eliot complimented her and Hardison grabbed his nose. "Next is grappling, the takedown."  
I watched Parker wrap her arms around Hardison, spin him around and throw him on the floor, which I had to laugh at; Parker was so tiny. Even Sophie had climbed onto the sofa to watch what was happening; Nate just carried on staring at the TV.  
"Exactly. All right, the third on is jujitsu. Okay, try too isolate a joint," Eliot instructed.  
Parker got Hardison in a hold, her right leg across his chest and pulling his left leg up against her while he was making straining noises.  
"That's good. That's a textbook armbar, Parker. Put some pressure on there," Eliot bent over to adjust her a little.  
"Like this?"  
"There you go. Or you can go for a chokehold."  
Parker lifted her leg off Hardison while he was pushing it.  
"She got to be choking me," he tried to get away while Parker changed position.  
"Remember that thing I showed you?" Eliot asked Parker and me and Sophie looked at each other, both of us having worried looks on our faces.  
"Oh yeah, the choke," Parker said and turned Hardison, wrapping her legs around his neck and pulling his head.  
Me and Sophie looked back to each other again, our eyes wide and Sophie flinched.  
"Lock that in. All right. You don't have to hold them arm. See, that's a triangle choke hold. That's nasty. Put pressure on his carotid artery, and the guy will submit by tap out."  
"Eliot, I'm tapping! I'm tapping!" Hardison slapped the floor, gasping for air.  
"These fights are won by inches, I'm telling you," Eliot said.  
"I can't breath!"  
"All about leverage." Eliot walked back round to the sofa, smiling to me as he passed  
"Yeah, it looks really painful," Sophie looked uncomfortable.  
"It is painful!" Hardison cried, still on the floor.  
"No TV deal, you said, huh? Hardison, what are this guy's other interests, this Rucker guy?" Nate asked.  
"Seriously, you ask me a question right now?"  
I laughed at Hardison and Parker still rolling around the floor.  
"I'll take that. Yeah, rotary club, golf membership," Sophie faced Nate.  
"Help me!" Hardison rasped.  
"Yeah. I mean, this guy's like a 1950's sitcom character. He plays a weekly game with the local businessmen. In face, last year, he won the club championship," Sophie ignored the plea behind her.  
"Did he? Hmm."  
"Let me go!" Hardison's voice was becoming weaker, barely a whisper.  
"I guess it's . . ." Nate put his fingers on his mouth, thinking.  
"She's killing me!"  
". . .it's time to hit the links."  
He and Sophie smiled at each other and got up; I was still laughing at Parker and Hardison, the smile on Parker's face while he remained in the choke hold.

That afternoon, while Nate went to play golf, taking Parker with him to lift what they needed, I quizzed Eliot about earlier.  
"How do you know all that? What else do you know?"  
"You'll find out what else I know sooner or later. How I know . . .well, do you remember what I told you in your room?" Eliot sat next to me, back at the Headquarters.  
"You joined the military, yeah," I moved my eyes away.  
"Well, you learn things, you need to know how to protect yourself."  
"And that's why you protect all of us? Because you're probably better than Jean Claude Van Damme?"  
Hardison, not far from us, laughed.  
"There's no probably about it. I am better than him," Eliot said, bluntly.  
"Yeah, okay. Chill on the self-love there, Spencer," I said. "And you used to be part of this . . .MMA?"  
"Yeah."  
"And that's all I'm going to get out of you?" I smiled.  
"Yeah," he smiled back.  
"Now, about this gut feeling of yours," Hardison brought up.  
"Ah, damn. Call it an extra sense, call it attention to detail, I don't know but usually when I guess something, it's usually right, if I think something, it's usually right," I shrugged.  
They accepted it and we waited for out fearless leader to get back.  
When Nate got back in the late afternoon, he told us that he was going to get the money he'd conned out of Rucker and Eliot was going to hang around outside the gym with Parker, waiting for Rucker's guys to jump him and Parker to send us the recording.  
Sure enough, when Eliot was heading down an alley, he was surrounded by cars and a bunch of guys, Rucker included.  
After taking on four guys, Rucker stepped in and Parker stopped recording and sent us what she had.  
Back at the hotel, when Nate had got back and Parker was uploading the video, Hardison was explaining what was on his laptop to me and Nate, while Sophie was on the phone.  
"Got it. See, online video websites, they track viewer hits by IP Address, so the trick os to just spoof a bunch of IP's then write a script that lets you browse the video page via the proxy list and . . ."  
"That's great. We got a feed on the security camera at the gym?" Nate interrupted and I watched Eliot fighting his way through the guys.  
"Yeah, yeah. The feed's on the TV," Hardison pointed across the room to the television.  
"Oh, well, how come we're not hearing it? Where's the audio?" asked Nate and then shouted across to Sophie, "we got audio?"  
"Huh? No. Oh, but the earbugs work," Sophie replied, before complaining into the phone about her food.  
"Sophie, how's he doing? How's he doing?"  
"Huh? Ooh, he's about to set the hook," she answered and hung up the phone.  
Nate made his way over to the sofa and sat down and I raced over and sat next to him, the three of us watching Eliot on the TV and listening to him through the earbugs.  
"It's a hell of a welcoming committee you got there," Eliot said to Rucker.  
"Oh, that? Yeah. We put all the newbie's through that. We call it the gauntlet. I can see you've had some training."  
"Some."  
"And Wells-he's your manager?" Rucker asked Eliot.  
"He runs a league out of South Dakota," Eliot answered.  
"South Dakota? There's no athletic commission there."  
"That's the way he likes it, kind of under-the-radar. Action's raw, lots of amateurs trying to make a name for themselves."  
"So, so, what's he doing here?" Rucker asked and through the surveillance, we could see Eliot play his part by looking uneasy, holding an icepack to his chin..  
"No, you . . .Don't worry, son. You can talk to me. I can make it worth your while," Rucker placed his arm on Eliot's shoulders and walked him round.  
"He's looking for some talent. You know, some fresh blood," Eliot answered.  
"Why?"  
"I don't know. He sent me here to see if I could spot anybody worth poaching."  
"Is that right?" Rucker sounded interested.  
"Look, I-all I know is that he has a meeting with some woman tomorrow and I got to find guys before then."  
"So he has a meeting? Here? Hmm, that's interesting. Come up to the office. We'll have a drink."  
Rucker had no surveillance in his office so we all had to go by voices alone and by now, Parker had made it back.  
"Thanks," we all heard Eliot say when he was offered a drink.  
"So, tell me, what's her name?"  
"Give him the paper with her name on," Nate instructed him.  
"I'm supposed to pick her up from the airport. She's coming in from LA."  
"Miss Debbie Dreiling. She's a producer," Rucker said and Hardison told us the pages he made had been found; pages he'd made for Sophie's cover.  
"Okay. Now trip the news alert," Nate told him.  
"So come fight for me," Rucker propositioned Eliot.  
"I can't."  
"What's he paying you, three-and-threes? Five-and-fives? You under contract?"  
"Sort of. I owe him money," Eliot said, sounding uneasy.  
"So you're his grunt. You're working it off," Rucker said, humorously.  
"I collect debts, you know. Work security, bust noses. Sometimes he lets me fight."  
"Well, let me tell you something. This Wells is an idiot. It's a real waste of talent. See, most of these guys, they're pieces of meat, like the cows they butcher at work. But they come to my gym every night cause they think if they work hard enough and fight hard enough, that they can make it to Vegas, and the UFC, energy-drink contracts," Rucker said, his voices fading and strengthening as he walked around. "That's the dream I sell them, they listen to me because I can take that dream away. Now, you, you're different. You fight like something's trying to get out of you. So, tell me. How much you owe Wells?"  
"Aah . . ." Eliot hesitated as he waited to for Nate to give him the numbers.  
"Hardison, his financials," Nate said.  
"I know, I know. I told you back home, it's all a big mess," Hardison said, tapping away.  
"No, come on. I need something now. I mean, he's . . ." Nate tapped his ear, getting a little impatient.  
"His money's all over the place. Just give me a minute to plow through this, man."  
"Okay, Eliot. Eliot, say, 20 grand," Nate instructed and Eliot repeated it.  
"Well, I can swing that. I can even bump someone off my next card. You'll be fighting within days. But I'll need something in return. I'll need you to bring this Miss Debbie Dreiling to me, before Wells. Now, you do that, and I'll get you out," Rucker said.  
Back in the hotel room, Sophie looked to me and Parker. "I'm starving."  
"Mmm. I found these in the minibar," Parker picked up a packet from between us and threw them over to the seat Sophie was in.  
"'Pork Rinds'? How you peel a pig?" Sophie threw them back, not looking too hungry after all.

When Sophie was in the bar of the golf club, me, Parker and Hardison were in a van parked outside, listening.  
"Bottom line is, you need good product. What event is it you here to produce?" Rucker asked Sophie.  
"On it," Hardison started pulling up events. "There's a tractor pull in grand island, a livestock show in council bluffs, white people doing other white things . . .Sophie, there's a Trianna concert in Omaha."  
"Trianna?" Parker asked.  
"She's that teenybopper kid's star. She's got a show on that kid's network."  
"Oh gee, that helps," I rolled my eyes.  
"Trianna," Sophie said to Rucker.  
"At the Mid-American Palace?"  
"Uh-huh."  
Nate dropped into role and stormed into the bar, Eliot behind him. "Yeah, right. Enough. Enough's enough. I'm sorry. Monkey boy here was supposed to take you to the hotel. It didn't happen," he said to Sophie.  
"All right, sweetie. I was just catching up with the local welcome wagon," Sophie replied.  
"Yeah, all the more reason I'm sorry."  
"Well, I really enjoyed our conversation. Perhaps we can continue it at the concert later?" Rucker asked.  
"Pardon me?"  
"Turns out I'm going to the big show. Maybe we could meet up there."  
"Of course. Definitely," Sophie said.  
"Trianna? Really?" Nate asked when they were away from the bar.  
"Hey, man, look. You're really lucky I didn't give you a monster truck rally on an Indian reservation. Now what?" Hardison asked.  
"To hook this guy, we have to convince him Sophie's the real deal."  
"How are we gonna do that?" asked Sophie.  
"Let's go steal us a concert," Nate said and I looked at Parker and Hardison, mouthing 'what the hell', and they both just smiled like it was the norm.

Outside the concert hall, me and Parker and Hardison got out of Parker's car.  
"So, look, the concert's already televised, so all we got to do is show Rucker a TV production truck. We're in charge," Hardison told me and Parker.  
"Erm . . .doesn't that mean . . ." I started.  
"Yup, that means clearing out the real director," Parker nodded her head to me.  
"Yeah, he's coming in from LA. Network's flying him in," Hardison added.  
"Nate's got this covered by posing as the directors limo driver; he was going to get cause a distraction with a punctured tyre or something like that," I told them.  
Hardison showed me and Parker all of our passes. "So, I'm Todd Laurence?"  
As soon as the pass was around his neck, lots of screaming girls came running up to him.  
"Ladies, please, look. For the last time, I am not the tailback for the cornhuskers. Go! I don't even know what a cornhusker is," he shooed them along.  
"What about the crew?" I asked.  
"Remote units are always crewed locally, so they never would have met the director anyway," Hardison answered me.  
"Right," Parker said.  
While the concert was in motion and Hardison and Parker were acting as crew while Sophie showed Rucker round, I was with Eliot and Nate at the gym, acting as Nate's something or other; it was hard to pay attention to him while Eliot was sparing and getting hot and sweaty.  
"Did you get all that?" Sophie asked Nate, but I barely registered.  
"Got it. Great job. We should be on our way home by this time tomorrow," Nate replied.

* * *

Things didn't seem to go according to plan because, when Sophie went into the gym the next day, Rucker seemed to have figured everything out, somehow.  
"Let me tell you what. Alex's cousin Jimmy is in the fight scene in south Dakota, and guess what? He's never heard of a Bill Wells."  
"Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit," I widened my eyes at Hardison and Parker in the van and Hardison just waved his hand at me to shut up.  
"Sweetie," Sophie laughed and acted innocent.  
"Sweetie," Rucker imitated her.  
"I think you're getting a little paranoid," my aunt laughed.  
"So you think you can come to my town, huh? Us country bumpkins, right? Cause all we can do is kick ass. I'll show you what us ass-kickers will do."  
Tank, the guy Eliot was supposed to fight, moved toward Sophie, threateningly.  
The three of us in the surveillance van were watching this on the screens and Hardison told Nate to get in there.  
"Whoa . . ." Sophie leant back a little and Nate charged in with Eliot on his heels.  
"All right. Leave her alone."  
"Oh. Look who is here. Wells. So, where's the rest of your crew? In the getaway car?"  
"Yeah, all right. Parker, Sherrie, Hardison, break it down. We're out of here. Come on," Nate told us.  
Hardison grabbed his laptop and the three of us left the van.  
"Yeah, well, you're not all frauds. People do want to see you fight. So why don't you take on Tank here?" Rucker asked Eliot.  
"I got five seconds to kill out of my day," I heard him say and I wished I was with them. For some unexplained reason, I was starting to like watching him fight.  
"No, no, no. Not here, Tank. But, you know, you're probably right. We've seen what you can do. But that's the thing, you know, see, you're favoured. So I'm gonna need you to take a dive."  
"You're not going to do it, are you, Eliot?" I asked him over the wire.  
"Come on," Nate said at the same time.  
"Fine. Go back to LA. Or wherever. It's a shame you won't be here next month, when Jack Howorth's house goes on fire," Rucker said and the team stopped.  
"Or in six weeks, when Mark has a car accident. But you won't be around for any of that," Rucker said, obviously trying to work them up.  
"I'll do it," Eliot said.  
"Oh, don't do it, don't take a dive," I sighed, shaking my head.  
"You don't have to do anything," Nate followed what I was saying.  
"Yeah, I do. And then you lay off the Howorths," Eliot said to me and Nate and then to Rucker.  
"You do what you have to do and they'll be fine. But I'm betting it all on Tank here, so it can't look like a fix. And feel free to use the gym. We don't want anybody to think you're not ready," Rucker called after them as they left.  
Me, Parker and Hardison were waiting in the carpark for them and when the other three came round Hardison held his arms out as Nate did the same.  
"What? What? W-what was I supposed to do? It was cousin Jimmy."  
"He's right. We couldn't have planned for that," Sophie agreed.  
"Look, you know what I can do? I can re-task a satellite, I can get a level 3 NSA clearance, but I can't hack a hick."  
"All right, it doesn't matter. What do we do now?" Eliot asked.  
"We can move the Howorth's," Parker suggested.  
"We're not moving the Howorth's. All right? This is their home. This means something to people here." Eliot seemed to be a little annoyed, with good reason, of course.  
"Yeah, we can't baby-sit them forever," Sophie sided with Eliot.  
"We've taken out bigger players than this. You know, there's got to be some way, something we can do . . ." Nate paused to think.  
"No, no! I take the dive."  
"You sure?" My aunt asked him.  
"No, don't take the dive, Eliot," I said and got a scowl from him in return.  
"Give me some time, okay? I've found some funny business in Rucker's accounts. I can move some things," Hardison said.  
"Forget the fact that we just got beat by Barney Fife, all right? This is the right move. Tactically it's the right move. You all know that," Eliot said and walked off, leaving the plan finalised.  
"Wait!" I ran after him.  
"What?" He huffed.  
"I know you're pissed but don't be pissed at me okay? If you're gonna take the dive then take the dive but I'm gonna be next to you, next to Nate," I said.  
His face softened a little and he was about to say something but the team had caught up.  
"Fine, but don't blame me if you don't like what you see."  
When Eliot had walked off again, Nate stopped next to me.  
"I told you he can be dangerous."  
"He's right, hun," Sophie put a hand on my shoulder.  
"And I'm telling the both of you that it doesn't matter because I won't have to be careful. Nothing is gonna happen between Eliot and me. He doesn't like me like that and I . . .can deal with that," I spun round.  
When Parker saw Hardison start to open his mouth, she nudged him, warning him to keep quiet and said to me, "shall we go and get some ice cream? Or chocolate?"  
"No, I'll walk back to the hotel," I said and started walking away, past the car Eliot was in, not looking at him.  
"You don't know where it is," Nate called after me.  
"I know the name; I'll find it," I shouted back without turning round.

* * *

That night, when the gym was empty, Eliot went to practice and when I after giving him a couple of hours, I walked into the dark gym.  
"Hey. Listen, you don't have to do this, you know. Nate and Sophie are gonna come up with something."  
Eliot was sweating all over; his t-shirt clung to him and his hair, messy and drenched, making him look more sexy..  
"I'm losing a fight, Sherrie. I'm not diving on a grenade. I'll be alright," Eliot stopped jumped around.  
"Yeah, I know. I'm not talking about physically."  
"I think my ego can handle it.," Eliot laughed and turned back.  
"Can it? Sophie told me what you told her about control, something about know you're never gonna be the victim. Isn't that what keeps you going?" I guessed.  
"You think I'm upset cause I got to let this guy kick my ass? I learned a long time ago, you can't control the violence. I can take the punishment. That's what I do," he smiled at me in a way that said he was revealing something about himself. "What I need to control is not out there," Eliot said with feeling and touched his chest. "It's here. Always."  
"Maybe I want to be here to help you keep control."  
"I'm not going to refuse that offer; and I'm not going to turn you away," Eliot leant onto the side of the ring so he was looking down at me. "Even if that makes me weak."  
I climbed up onto the ring so I was level with him.  
"You will never be weak, Eliot," I said, quietly.  
"I can't be when I have you to protect."  
A smile spread across my face and I looked down at my feet, feeling myself going red.  
It surprised me when I felt his hand under my chin and he lifted my head up; I looked through the dark, into his eyes and he leant forward and kissed my cheek.  
Taking a deep breath through my nose, I took in his smell of sweat and masculinity.  
"I'm distracting you," I played with one of his gloves and jumped down. "I'll see you later. Eliot watched me leave and went back to practicing.


	8. The Tap Out Job Pt 2

The night of the fight, the gym was full of people, all of whom were chanting, "Tank! Tank!"  
Nate and Hardison led Eliot out and Sophie, Parker and me followed.  
When the three men were up in the ring, I wanted so much to be up there with them but Nate had made sure Parker would keep me in the crowd behind them.  
Looking up, Nate was giving Eliot water and I found it impossible to look away. He'd removed his t-shirt and was in just his shorts and gloves, his hair tied back in a way I loved; his chest was smooth and well-muscled and those arms looked just as they good when I first saw them the other day. I just wanted to get my hands on him.  
Rucker sat beside us and both me and Parker tensed.  
"So, your friend knows to stick to the plan, right? He goes down, and I collect on my bet."  
"And you leave the Horworth's alone," Sophie demanded.  
"And you get the hell out of my town," Rucker ordered.  
"Let's go!" The crowd shouted.  
"I don't want to watch this," I whispered into Sophie's ear.  
"He'll be fine, he'll be fine," she said, both for me and herself.  
"Ready?! You ready?! The referee called to Eliot and Tank. "Get it on!"  
"Tank! Tank!"  
"They should be cheering for Eliot, not that thug!" I spat and Rucker, who was sat next to us, laughed.  
Eliot and Tank began fighting and after a few kicks and punches, Eliot fell down but jumped straight back up and charged at Tank, taking him down by his waist, throwing punch after punch at him on the floor.  
"What the hell is he doing?" Rucker raged.  
"You told him to make it look good, didn't you?" Sophie replied.  
I watched Eliot lift Tank's leg and get kicked in the face..  
"Oh no, I can't watch this," I turned away and Sophie rubbed my back.  
When I turned back, Eliot was pushed into a corner, being punched and then flipped over onto his back. Tank kept punching and punching and Nate must have known something was wrong by Eliot not fighting back because he opened the water and smelt it.  
Sophie saw it and turned to Rucker. "You drugged him, didn't you?"  
"Why?! He already said he'd go down!" Parker shouted at him.  
"They drugged him! You bastards drugged him!" I shouted, making it even harder to watch Eliot get beaten the crap out of.  
"What makes you think I would trust a bunch of lying grifters to keep their word?" Rucker sneered to Sophie and Parker.  
"Get the doctor, Parker. Now!" Sophie ordered.  
"No need. It'll be over in a couple of minutes," Rucker said.  
"Oh man-you don't get it, do you? Eliot's not like other fighters. He doesn't play games."  
I turned to Sophie and listened to her.  
"He fights to survive, that's his training."  
"Break it up!" The referee shouted.  
"It takes all his control not to kill somebody. You've just made him more dangerous. You've taken the safety off the gun!" Sophie cried.  
Something seemed to snap in Eliot because he wrapped his legs around Tank's neck like Parker had done to Hardison the day before and, when he was positioned on top, he rained the punches down onto Tank.  
"Break it up! Come on, now! Break it up!" Nate was shouting.  
Rucker was sat there, starting to look very nervous.  
Eliot flipped again so this time Tank was on top and started with the chokehold that, again, Parker had pulled on Hardison, and Tank was slapping his hand on the floor, submitting by tap out.  
The referee hesitated but finally moved in. "Come on. That's enough. Come on. Let go of him. That's enough. Get off him." He tried to prise Eliot off but Eliot hit his arm; finally, the ref managed to pull Eliot's legs apart and he rolled to the side.  
Hardison helped pull Eliot up onto the seat in the corner and the ref and doctor were bent over Tank, trying to see if he was still breathing, which he didn't seem to be.  
The doctor listened to his chest and pulled out a needle, injecting something into Tank's arm. Rucker looked worried himself and ordered a few of the guards to get everyone out.  
As the place started to empty, Tank was lying on his back, with his eyes open and the doctor was doing compressions.  
"Oh god. Oh no," I kept turning my back on the scene, then looking, and turning my back again.  
"It's going to be okay," Sophie said but even she didn't sound sure.  
"What the hell just happened?" Rucker got into the ring and stormed toward Eliot but Nate and Hardison blocked him.  
"What the hell are you doing?! You could have killed him!" Nate shouted.  
"You know how much you just cost me? I'm gonna make you pay."  
"Make me pay, huh?"  
"We had a deal!" Rucker shouted.  
"Hey, listen to me! Tank is dead!" The doctor cried out.  
I sat on the floor.  
"Hey. Hey," Sophie knelt beside me.  
"He's dead! Eliot killed him!" I cried.  
"No. No, wait," Rucker said.  
I looked up to Eliot. He had his t-shirt on and was leant forward, looking devastated.  
Rucker and the doctor were having some kind of debate so I climbed up and into the ring, sitting on the floor beside Eliot.  
When Rucker had ran up to his office, we all got down and sat on the seats for the crowd, leaving Tank and the doctor in the ring.  
"Parker, you got him?" Nate asked and Parker told him that Rucker had gone. "You plant the transmitter?"  
Hardison pulled out his phone. "Looks like he's headed to Iowa."  
"Make the call," Nate told him.  
Jack, the guy the job was to help, came over. "What's going on?"  
"Just give me a sec. Doc, you got Tank, right?"  
"Yeah. Oh, he'll be fine. Should come around in a few minutes," the doctor said to Nate and I looked, stopping the crying and upset act.  
"Wait, wait. He's not dead?" Jack asked.  
"Succinylcholine. It's a mild paralytic. It only works for a few minutes."  
"Yeah, it was enough to scare off Rucker," Nate said and I started laughing with relief.  
"So, so, so, Eliot . . ." Jack looked to him.  
"No, no, no. We found the drugged water bottle before the fight, switched it out with a clean one. Rucker's not too original when it comes to this kind of this, apparently," Nate held up Eliot's water bottle.  
"So, Jonny, you were in on this?" Jack asked.  
"Mr. Ford and his friends came and asked me for help. I told him around here, we always stand up for our own," the doctor smiled at Jack, now out of the ring. "Where's Rucker?"  
"Oh, the Iowa State Police just got a tip that a fugitive is headed into their jurisdiction. And I'm pretty sure crossing the state with a bag full of cash won't look too good," Hardison said, laughing and over-happy.  
"Especially when they find the little surprise in his trunk," Parker smirked, naughtily.  
"What did you do?"  
"Brought some guns from a pawn shop."  
"Parker, you are badass!" I shouted at her but stayed at Eliot's side while the doctor examined him.  
"You took a hell of a pounding. We should get you a CT scan. You could have internal bleeding."  
I felt a lump form in my throat but I swallowed it. "I'm coming with you."  
"You let yourself get hammered like that on purpose? That's a hell of a lot of punishment to take," Jack looked at him with respect.  
"That's what he does," Sophie said.  
I looked around and they were all looking at Eliot with respect.  
"You should be proud of yourself," I said and squeezed his arm.  
"Well, this has been one heck of a night, what's say we all go and get a drink?" Nate said.  
"I'm going to go and see my son," Jack said and Nate smacked him on the back as they all left. All apart from me and Eliot.  
When Hardison noticed me and Eliot weren't with them, he got out his phone and tapped into the surveillance.  
"What are they doing?" Parker peeked at the phone.  
"Turn that off," Nate ordered.  
"What? Why? They about to prove I was right from the start," Hardison waved his phone.  
"Because whatever Eliot is saying to her, it's in confidence or he would have done it with us there. And if something does happen then it's between them, not us. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want us watching. Would you want us watching you and Parker?"  
Parker looked at Hardison and then back with a dirty smile.  
"Forget I said that," Nate shook his head  
"Come on, lets go celebrate," Hardison dragged Parker off.  
"That was really nice of you, Nate," Sophie smiled and kissed his cheek "I just hope she knows what she's getting herself into."  
"She hasn't got anything to worry about. You know the night of the wedding, when she had too much to drink?" Nate asked.  
"Yeah."  
"Eliot spent the night sat in her room, watching her, making sure she was okay."  
Sophie gasped. "He really did that?"  
Nate just nodded, took Sophie's hand followed Hardison and Parker.

* * *

In the gym, in the dim light, I crossed my legs on the seat, facing Eliot.  
"Nate made sure we'd be alone, didn't he?" I asked, breaking the silence.  
"Yeah, he did," Eliot laughed a little but quickly turned serious again. "I wish you hadn't seen that," he said.  
"I don't care, Eliot. I told you yesterday that I'd be next to you. I was and I still am. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here," I replied.  
Eliot looked up from the floor to my eyes. "Black Ops."  
"What?"  
"I joined the military, even achieved commander rank, and left them and the girl I loved to become a Black Ops soldier. I was taught everything; surviving in hostile environments, about weapons, how to kill someone with . . ." he looked at his hands. "I know everything the military knows, I know how to make and disable bombs. I'm wanted in five countries, in three I have a price on my head."  
I took a breath, appreciating that he was telling me about himself.  
"I worked for more than one private military contractor, I've even worked for Damien Moreau; the worse thing I ever did in my life I did for him."  
"I'm not going to ask," I said, quietly.  
"Good cos I won't tell you," he reached over and held one of my hands.  
"So, before this you were a spy and you blew stuff up and killed people and you're an expert at martial arts, retrieval and are a really wanted man," I summed up.  
"I won't blame you if you get up and walk out that door right now."  
"My family has a history of violence and death is tagged to our name. The bloke I nearly married left me for his job so I got angry, stabbed my best mate and my family has never forgiven or forgotten. Sophie is the only one who has. That's why I'm here. The day I got on that plane, the rest of my family died," I said all at once and then took a deep breath.  
"Hey," Eliot said when I looked away.  
When I looked back, he leant forward and kissed me, his lips soft. I kissed him back and when I pulled away, he said, "you've got a new family now. All of us."  
"So, you do have a good side, right?" I joked.  
"Oh sure. I'm a gourmet chef, I even grow my own food, and I can play guitar and sing."  
"Can I tell you something with you not thinking any less of me?"  
"What is it?" Eliot asked.  
"I don't know why, but god, I love watching you fight. In the hotel room, at the wedding . . .yesterday. I just . . ." I couldn't think how to explain it so I just kissed him again.  
"And tonight?" He asked afterwards.  
"I really wish you didn't have to let yourself get beat up but it's all part of the job, right? And like I said, you should be proud of yourself," I squeezed his hand and thumbed the blood from his face, wiping it on my trousers.  
"Come on, let's go celebrate with the others," Eliot stood up.  
"Yeah, another job well done," I joined him on my feet.  
"And us, right?" He took hold of the hand that wasn't in a cast.  
"Right," I smiled and we both walked out.


	9. The Two Horse Job

Nate walked into the Headquarters where we all were and told us we had a job prepared.  
It had been a week since the fight and me and Eliot were driving Hardison and Parker crazy with the odd kissing.  
"The sexual tension between you is killing us, just get upstairs," Hardison said.  
"Did you hear what I said? We got a job."  
"What is it?" I spun round in the chair I was sat in.  
"A guy in Kentucky, Willie owns Kensington Stables. It got burned down and a lot of horses were killed," Nate said to all of us.  
"Kensington Stables?" Eliot sounded alert and I looked at him. "I'll go with you to see them."  
"Sure, sure. Get ready so we can go." Nate turned and headed to his room.  
When Nate and Eliot were headed to see the client, I was going to join them but Eliot stopped me.  
"Maybe you should stay here?"  
"Why?" I crossed my arms and looked at him.  
He grabbed my elbow and led me away from the others.  
"Listen, I'll tell Nate when it comes to it but, remember that only girl I was in love with, well, her dad was called Willie. They lived in Kentucky on a horse ranch. This could get awkward," he whispered to me.  
"Ah, the new girlfriend and the ex-girlfriend. Sure," I said, trying not to act offended.  
"Hey, I'll make it up to you," Eliot said and kissed me before leaving with Nate.  
"You two really need to tie things up in the bedroom," Hardison said.  
"What?!" I cried at him.  
"Seriously, the sexual tension is so thick."  
"You pervert," I hissed and stormed away.

When they returned, Hardison had set up the screen, ready with the research he'd done..  
"Alan Foss, hedge-fund manager for Smith & Marken in New York. He made $40 million in the last two years. And he picked up some pretty high-cost, high-profile hobbies. Started with high-stakes poker and now owning racehorses."  
"I think I have a fever. Can I be excused from this one?" Parker started acting jittery.  
"Oh, come here. Let me feel your head," Sophie reached over but when Parker leant forward, Nate blocked Sophie's hand with his own.  
"No, don't-don't feel her. Why do you-what's the deal? W-what we-"  
"I once saw a horse kill a clown," Parker cut Nate off. "I just really don't like horses."  
"Moving on," Nate waved his hand.  
"Six months ago, Foss poured a pile of cash into buying all of the horses from Willie's stable. After the fire, wh-" Hardison started talking again but got interrupted by Eliot.  
"Massacre. The massacre."  
"Ooh, you are a bit hot on this one," Sophie smiled at him.  
I raised my eyebrow at him and he smiled at me, reassuringly.  
"Oh-okay, hot yes. Everybody, y'all want to take over the briefings? Okay, I-I got to a lot of trouble to make these things interesting, have a little something visual for the visual learners, and the auditory learners, and y'all, I-it's just interruption-" Hardison started to stress, waving his arms around at the screen behind him.  
"Hey, IYS. Your old insurance company holds the policy on Foss horses," Parker said to Nate and suddenly a penny dropped in my head and I saw Sophie roll her eyes.  
"IYS? You worked for IYS?" I shot questions at Nate. "You were an insurance investigator?"  
"Yeah why? Is that going to be a problem?" Nate asked me.  
"Well, I-err-the guy, I mean a guy left me for work and he left to come work here in America. For a company called IYS," I explained.  
Sophie shook her head.  
"You knew about this?" Nate asked Sophie.  
"Yes," she sighed.  
"Well, there's a lot of guys who work there, chances are small that he'll turn up, whoever he is," he reassured me.  
I just nodded  
"Well, what do we know about Foss' schedule?" Nate went back to the job at hand.  
"According to his online calendar, he's going to a big race at Kensington racetrack this weekend," Hardison answered.  
"Miss Deveraux, how is your 'southern belle'?" Nate smirked.  
It was all set that Sophie would go to the race and afterwards, lead Foss to a poker game with the guys while me and Parker stayed at in the hotel, watching.

When the game was finished and they returned, Eliot sat next to me and wrapped an arm around me.  
"Tomorrow, I'm going to the stable with Nate; you're going to come with me and you'll see there's nothing between me and Aimee, there's nothing you've got to worry about."  
"What makes you think I'm worried?" I raised an eyebrow.  
"Did you forget what I told you last week? Everything I do? I can read you and I know."  
"I'm also a bit jumpy about my ex as well."  
"Well, if he comes then I'll beat him up; I remember you saying you liked to watch me fight," he grinned and squeezed me.  
I giggled and leant against him.  
In the stables, Eliot was walking us down the aisle, talking.  
"Aimee got us the horses. We need her help pull this off.  
"So all of these are mine?" Nate asked.  
"Uh, well, no. Trainers work with a lot of different owners, so only a few of them will be yours. But the stables belong to the trainers, not the owners. So his office would be right down there," Aimee pointed.  
"You can't even say my name now?" Eliot asked her.  
"No," she said, bluntly.  
"Whatever."  
"Uh, and the logos?" Nate asked.  
"Well, like she said, my stable. These stables are all identical, the only way to tell them apart is by trainer logos, so Hardison faked a couple of them up this morning," Eliot explained.  
"Anything else so you need so you can wrap this up and go back to being a somewhat disappointing memory?"  
'Jeez, what a bitch,' I thought to myself.  
"I thought you said you were fine with this?" Eliot asked her and Nate left without me and Eliot seeing.  
"I thought you were coming back in three weeks."  
"Oh, boy, this is perfect," he stressed and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the stable.  
"Are you okay?" I asked.  
"With you by my side? I'm in control."

After Nate and Eliot had dealt with Foss, we were grouped in the stables with Sophie and Aimee..  
"Great now, not only is Foss not out of the horse business, he's bringing in more money and partners," Eliot sighed.  
"Caught that, working on it," Nate said.  
"You're working on it? You said that you had a plan," Aimee said, impatiently.  
"He just said he's working on it," Eliot huffed at her.  
"Right, but you convinced my dad that things were gonna be okay. Things have only gotten worse. Now, I-I appreciate you trying to help, but if you don't know what you're doing, just walk away. At least I know you're good at that," she shot at him and I really had to bit my tongue.  
"Can't let it go, can you? Can't let it be the past."  
"No, I was fine until the long-lost hero came back into town," Aimee sneered.  
My tongue was starting to hurt so I let go. "Yeah, he is a hero and obviously you ain't over him but guess what? He seems to be over you so why don't you let it all go and stop being a bitch?"  
"Aah, the new little girlfriend speaks up. Well, love, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."  
"Aimee . . ." Eliot warned but I held up my hand.  
"Oh,, I know very well and let me tell you something, the Eliot I know ain't the Eliot you knew so before I ruin those pretty blue eyes of yours, why don't you go tend to your horses," I snapped and walked away, leaving Nate with his mouth open, Sophie rolling her eyes because she knew what my temper was like and Eliot smiling, liking me even more because I was fighting for him.  
"Damn," Hardison's voice said through the bugs.  
"I told you she has a short temper," Sophie sighed and left Aimee stunned.

In Willie's office, me, and the team, minus Eliot were sat talking about the job.  
"What about that thing you did in-in Kazakhstan?" Sophie asked Nate.  
"No, Sterling knows about that one."  
When he said this, I choked on the water I was drinking.  
"It's Sterling? Sterling is the investigator? You said the chances were small!" I shouted.  
"Sterling is your ex?" Hardison asked, shocked.  
"Little old, isn't he?" Parker asked.  
"The age didn't bother me. You're saying Sterling is here? I have to get out, I have to go. I need to leave," I got up and started pacing.  
"Calm down, girl, we'll keep him away from you, you won't have to see him. Just stay next to Eliot," Hardison held up his hands.  
"I-I . . .oh god," I sat back down and rested my head on the table and Sophie came over to rub my back.  
"Let's deal with this when we need to. Right now, we need to go and steal a horse," Nate said, urging the others to get into action.  
"I think I'm just going to wait here until Eliot turns up," I said.  
"Good idea," Sophie agreed to let me stay and they all left.  
I was not looking forward to bumping into Sterling.  
'What will he do when he sees me? What will he do when he sees me with Nate? Oh go. Oh god. Oh god,' I kept thinking to myself.  
Later on, while Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Aimee were picking up the horse to swap, I was with Nate.  
"Hey, did you get him turned around enough?" Nate asked Sophie when she walked in.  
"I think so. He doesn't seem that familiar with the stables," she answered.  
"Okay, Foss is in place. Where are you?" Nate asked over the com.  
"We're close, any minute now," Eliot replied.  
"Listen, the hauler's gonna be here in five minutes. If you're not here, Foss is gonna open up an empty trailer and there'll be no lost heir."  
"I said we'll be there!" Eliot said, angrily and I wished I was there with him.  
"Hardison, show me what you're looking at."  
Me and Sophie leant either side of Nate to look at a crash Hardison was showing on his phone.  
"I'll be damned," Hardison said at the completely blocked road.  
"All right, all right. We're not gonna make it. I'm pulling the plug. Eliot, bring the horse back to the stud farm, meet us at the rendezvous spot," Nate instructed.  
"Uh, boss, we might have a hard time with that," Hardison said.  
"Why?" Nate asked as Hardison's video call showed Eliot ride past on the horse.  
I had to admit, I was impressed and he looked real fine on the horse.  
Minutes later, he rode into the stables.  
"Whoa," Nate looked up.  
"Pony express is never late, boss."  
"Didn't I tell you I was gonna kill you?"  
Eliot rode into the stables and jumped down.  
"So, you forgot to mention you're a cowboy?" I smiled, walking up to him.  
"Yee hah," he chuckled and kissed me passionately.  
Eliot moved Kentucky Thunder into a stable and we all headed outside, right into Sterling.  
I tried to hide behind Eliot but he's already seen me.  
"Sherrie. What on earth are you doing over here? And why the bloody hell are you with Eliot Spencer?"  
"Don't talk to me," I snapped.  
"Oh, I get it, you're still upset? "  
He still looked really good and I tried to keep my focus on Eliot at my side.  
"Upset? Do you know how much you messed me up?!" I shouted.  
"Ah, you're the ex-girlfriend who couldn't handle him leaving and dealt with it by stabbing her best friend?" A girl with an English accent appeared beside him.  
I looked her over; she had shoulder-length brown hair and her whole demeanour just screamed trouble.  
"You better shut the hell up!" I pointed at her.  
"Ah yes. Sherrie, this is Nat," Sterling introduced us.  
From the closeness between them, I could tell there was more going on than just business.  
"I think Sterling definitely made the right choice leaving you. I can't see what he saw in you in the first place," Nat sneered and Eliot held me back as I tried to charge at her.  
It didn't help when she just laughed.  
"Less of the drama, ladies. Let's go see about this horse shall we?" Sterling broke between us and headed to the stables, taking Nat with him.  
"I'll be seeing you soon," she said over her shoulder.  
"Oh, I can't wait," I spat.  
"You stay out here," Eliot ordered, pointing at me and looking me in the eye, before he and Sophie followed the crowd to see our job succeed.  
"Okay, I-I just put the horse in here. How is this happening? How am I supposed to know? What horse is this?!" I heard Foss shouting from outside and smiled, despite the bastard that was inside with him.  
When Sophie and Eliot came out, we all headed to the office to give Willie and Aimee their money.  
"What was that? I think I'm going have to teach you to fight, the same way I did with Parker," Eliot laughed a little, on the way.  
"No one tries to intimidate me. Seeing him just made me want to punch someone," I clenched my fists.  
"I know that feeling but control, remember?"  
"Mmm, yeah," I mumbled and carried on walking.

Nate and Eliot were sat in Willies office, and this time, I was with them.  
"Looks good. All right. And, uh . . .we got you just a little bit of cash to get your stable going. $12 million more will be in your bank account. And here is . . .your first horse," Nate handed Willie a napkin with writing on it.  
"This is legal?" he asked.  
"Absolutely. The fraud invalidates the second sale, ownership reverts back to the previous owner-me-and I'm giving him to you."  
"I-I don't know what to say. Next horse I get, I'm naming him Mr. Ford," Willie said and me, Eliot and Aimee laughed behind them.  
"Mr. Ford. Well, I look forward to putting a little money on Mr. Ford. All right. Okay, Eliot. Eliot?" Nate looked him and I copied.  
"Yeah, uh, cou-can I-could you give me, uh-" Eliot struggled for words.  
"Yeah, yeah, just-yeah," he nodded and got up with Willie to leave.  
When he looked at me, I realised he wanted me to leave and I felt my stomach drop a little.  
"It's okay, I'll be out and with you in a minute," Eliot reassured me.  
All of my relationships back home had all gone badly, and seeing Sterling on this job really didn't help but Eliot seemed to have an aura about him that made me trust him and I left him and Aimee alone, closing the door behind me.  
Outside Willie's office, Sophie turned up to drive me, Nate and Eliot back home.  
"Are you okay?" Sophie asked when I climbed into the car.  
"It was hard but lets all cross our fingers that I never see him again," I answered and spoke to Nate. "I'm sorry me and Sophie didn't tell you that I was with Sterling but I guess we never thought he'd come into the picture."  
"It's fine. Just tell me next time if there's something you think I should know," Nate looked at me.  
"Where's Eliot?" Sophie asked, turning to look at me, alone, in the backseat.  
"He's with Aimee, probably saying goodbye," I shrugged, trying not to think of it.  
"Don't worry, you can trust him, you can trust all of us," Nate said.  
"I know and I'm starting to," I replied.  
Eliot chose that moment to appear at the side of the car and open the door to the opposite side I was sitting.  
"Everything okay?" I asked.  
"Yeah, just telling me she's glad I have found myself a family," he reached over and grabbed my hand.  
"Let's go get our things and go home," Nate said.  
"So, Sterling, huh?" Eliot asked on the way back.  
"Yeah, but seeing him again I-I . . .god, I hate him!" I spoke through clenched teeth.  
I saw Eliot grin at me from the corner of my eye and when I looked at him, he said, "now you're part of the team."  
The Happiness I felt was indescribable.  
"Do I get a name? I mean, you're the hitter, Sophie's the grifter, Parker the thief," I asked.  
"What would you prefer? The persuader?" Sophie suggested.  
"Yeah. Yeah, I like that," I grinned. "The Persuader!"


	10. The Studio Job

It wasn't even six days before me and Eliot and Nate had a girl in the bar in Nate owned, assessing a job that he took up on Hardison's suggestion.  
The young girl had blonde hair sat in front of us, her hands shaking and spilling her milk.  
After introductions, we learned her name was Kaye Lynn.  
"I'm sorry. I'm still a bit shook up," she said, upset and her voice as shaky as her hands.  
"That's all right," Nate said.  
"That's all right," I said, also, and used a napkin to wipe up the milk. "I got it."  
"So, uh, your brother, now, will he ever play again?" Nate inquired.  
"Doctors say he'll be lucky to move his fingers again. Music was his life. What Kirkwood did was more than wrong. It was . . ." Kaye Lynn tried to describe.  
"It was cruel," Eliot say with sympathy in his voice and I remembered him telling me he played the guitar and sang.  
"Now, this guy Kirkwood, you said he has a reputation for doing these kinds of things. So why would you work for him?" Nate asked her.  
"Well, he owns a record label, Mr. Ford."  
"So?"  
"Put it like this. The day I was born, my mama said I looked at her, smiled, and asked, "'Which way to music city?'" Kaye Lynn answered.  
"He was your shot at stardom," Eliot stated.  
"Right. He hired us to write songs for other artists, his more established artists. It was good money, plus royalties, and we thought we'd hit the jackpot, but when it came time to pay. . . "  
"He showed you the fine print," I finished her sentence.  
"Exactly. He charged us rent to park in his lot. He charged us for pens we used. He . . .owns our publishing," she cried out.  
"So the only difference between Kirkwood and the majors is that the majors use lawyers to do their dirty work," Nate said, looking at her.  
"And our songs were good and they did well. And before you knew it, he owed hundreds of thousand in royalties," Kaye Lynn said while nodding.  
"You ever confront him?" Nate asked.  
"Instead of paying us, he offered to record our own album in his studio, no charge, and he said he was gonna get us a spot in 'Saddles & Spurs'."  
"'Saddle and Spurs . . .' What's that?"  
"A big music festival in Memphis," Kaye Lynn answered Nate.  
"All right. So, what happened?" Eliot asked her.  
"When he heard the album, he decided it was too good to waste on a couple of unknowns. So he stole it! The devil may have gone down to Georgia Mr. Ford, but he lives in Memphis."  
Nate glanced at me and Eliot and his eyes had the look in that said he'd already decided.  
In the briefing room of the headquarters, the team was lined up, looking at Hardison's handiwork.  
"Mitchell Kirkwood. Record producer at CEO of Kirkwood Records. Now, here's a fun fact. He started off his career as an artist. Does anyone remember this?"  
After Hardison hit a button on the remote, a music video came up, showing Kirkwood singing. "_Should have been it took a single spark to set the sky a flame when you were in my heart the stars spelled out your name . . ."  
_"I say we take him down for that alone," Sophie said, shaking her head and I laughed.  
"Critics agreed. It's probably why he never released another single. He took the money and he made and funnelled it into his record company, and judging by the number of lawsuits filed, and dropped within days, I'd say it's not his first time forcing somebody to settle out of court," Hardison told us, shaking his head.  
"Does he have a criminal record?" Eliot asked.  
"None. He carved out a nice little kingdom in the country-record world."  
"Yeah, well, he stole Kaye Lynn's music. He stole her money, he took over their publishing."  
I looked at Eliot and couldn't help thinking that he sounded a little too passionate about the job and the girl.  
"Yeah, but we're gonna get it back," Nate said, pulling me out of my thoughts.  
"I understand how to steal money, but how do you steal music?" Sophie asked.  
Hardison brightened up went off on a geek rant. "Oh, it's called a digital master. It's high-quality, multi-channel, studio-recorded, mixed, and engineered. Price to produce hundred of thousands, sometimes millions. Now, this building right here," he pointed to the screen. "This is the Kirkbride Records, Memphis, Tennessee. Now, inside this building is a hidden safe that contains these digital masters, one of which has Kaye Lynn's music on it."  
"So it's a smash and grab," Parker said.  
"Well, no, no. Not exactly. No cause we have to make sure she gets back the money," Nate told her.  
"And a little extra for hospital bills," Sophie added.  
"Making sure that he can't come after them, well, that wouldn't hurt."  
Nate and Sophie looked at each other, smiled and said at the same time, "a fiddle game."  
Parker very quickly held her arm up in the air like a child would in school.  
"Uh, Parker!" Nate cried.  
"Uh, I don't know how to play the fiddle," she said.  
"Well, actually we're not gonna play a fiddle. No. We're gonna sell one. For a hell of a lot more than it's worth," Nate corrected her.

On the way up the Memphis, we all had our bugs in and when I found out that Nate wanted Eliot to play guitar and sing, I was feeling excited and rather looking forward to it. The same couldn't be said for Eliot; he looked really unsure.  
At the bar that Kirkwood owned, Saddlebag Saloon, Nate found his place at the bar and Sophie purposely made sure occupy Kirkwood's table.  
"Kirkwood's on his way over," Hardison said, mainly to Nate and left the bar, making sure to run into Kirkwood.  
"Hey-hey," Kirkwood cried and sat at the bar.  
"Hey, why don't you put it on my, uh, tab, there? You're, uh, Mitch Kirkwood, aren't you?" Nate made conversation but over the noise it was a bit hard to head Kirkwood's response.  
"Parker, I'm on my way to the sound booth," Hardison said a minute later, to Parker who was dancing on the dance floor..  
"Why, th-th-that's really . . .something'," Nate was saying to Kirkwood. "Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Now, why . . .why would you just, uh, stop at one song?"  
"Oh. Same reason you manage musicians. Why be the cow when you can be the farmer," Kirkwood was faintly heard.  
"Oh, well . . ."  
"Tell me about this kid you got," Kirkwood requested.  
"Yeah, well, his name is, uh, Kenneth Crane. Right?" Nate told him Eliot's cover.  
"Yeah."  
"Now, a couple of years ago, uh, we took his best song, we put it on a demo tape, and we it sent it out everywhere. Well, two days ago, this, uh, European lady, she offered $25, 000 for the rights to the song."  
Sitting at the bar, away from Nate but near enough that I could see Kirkwood walk away.  
"Well . . .Let the fiddle games begin?" Nate said to Parker, who had made her way to him.  
"Yeah. Um, I'm still a little unclear. Where, exactly, is this fiddle?" Parker asked.  
"It just walked through the door," Nate answered and the three of us turned to see Eliot walk in; I left the bar and started making my way over, Parker following from the other side of the bar.  
When we'd got past the crowd and joined up, we made our way up to the balcony where Eliot was.  
"What are you looking at?" Parker bumped into him he jumped, startled.  
"Don't!"  
"What's wrong?" Parker asked him.  
"I'm-nothing's wrong."  
"Something's wrong."  
"Yeah, what's wrong, Eliot?" I agreed and grabbed his arm.  
"I'm fine," he looked at us both and back to the crowd.  
"I startled you," Parker said.  
"You're a cat burglar. That's what you do."  
"Yeah, I've been a cat burglar since I was 10 years old," Parker shrugged.  
"Don't-"  
"Really?" I cut Eliot off, looking at Parker in amazement.  
"Well, maybe 9, but this is the first time I've startled him."  
"He's nervous, Parker," Sophie said.  
"I'm not nervous," Eliot denied.  
"You told me you could sing," I said, still holding onto his arm.  
"I can sing. I just . . .I didn't . . .realize there was gonna be this many people."  
He looked down over all the people and Parker's mouth dropped.  
"You are nervous."  
I had to join her shock; this was the first time since I'd known him that I'd seen any type of weakness or cracks in his hard, tough-guy act.  
"She's right. Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?"  
Eliot just looked at me and shook his head.  
"You're gonna do fine," I said and kissed his cheek, and he wrapped his arm around me.  
"Relax man. I told you. I got you. Say something," Hardison said from the control room. "Say something."  
"I don't speak on command," he growled.  
"Perfect. Now, I rigged my laptop to record your comm. Now, this means that I can alter your pitch from anywhere to make you sound like Darth Eliot . . ."  
Through the bug, we heard Eliot's voice deepened, saying "_I don't speak on command_," and sounding like Darth Vader.  
Me and Eliot laughed and put my head on his chest.  
" . . .to Spencer Smurf," Hardison continued and the same quote was said in a smurf's voice.  
This time me and Parker burst out laughing so hard, we held our sides.  
Eliot pulled away from me and he had a fierce scowl on his face.  
"Hardison," he said, short-tempered.  
"Don't do the smurf thing again?" Hardison guessed.  
"Right."  
I stayed away from Eliot as he'd pulled away from me but he grabbed my hand.  
"So, the software takes the frequency of your voice, and it matches it to the key of the song, then uses a Fourier transform to correct the pitch, and sends the tuned audio through the bar's speakers."  
"What does that mean?" Parker asked Hardison.  
"That means that, for tonight, Eliot has the perfect pitch. You ever wonder how Britney Spears sounds so good on her tracks? Well this is it, except mine's in real time, baby."  
"Uh, who, exactly, did you just refer to as 'baby'?" Nate asked and it sounded like we all laughed at the same time.  
"It's like the universal term of 'baby'. How old are you?" Hardison asked him and me and Parker laughed again.  
In the Saddlebag Saloon's Green Room, me and Eliot and Kaye Lynn were together and Kaye Lynn was pacing.  
"What, are you nervous?" Eliot asked her.  
"That song you're going out there to sing? That's the only thing my brother and I have left that Kirkwood hasn't stolen or destroyed, if I lose it . . ."  
"You're not going to lose it, all right? We're gonna get you your money, we're gonna get you your music back. I promise you."  
I was sat on the sofa in the room with my legs up, listening.  
"How can you be so sure?" Kaye Lynn asked him.  
"Cause this is what we do," I said.  
She looked at me and Eliot started playing the guitar he had in his arms.  
"You still having trouble with that bridge?" She said.  
"No. I-I think . . ."  
"Let me . . .let me show you, let me . . ."  
I watched Kaye Lynn slide under the guitar and sat on his lap; this wasn't something I was happy seeing so I turned round on the sofa, making me face away from them, that way I couldn't see them.  
"Okay. When you strum, just do this, all right? So . . .'G' right. You have 'D' . . ."  
"'D' right," Eliot repeated and kept his eyes on me instead of what she was showing him.  
"You got . . .you got 'G' again."  
I tried to ignore them and listen to downstairs through Nate and Sophie's wig.  
"How do you feel when you play?" Kaye Lynn asked.  
"I'm . . .I think . . .I got it," Eliot replied.  
"See, that . . .that's your problem."  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her get off my boyfriend's lap and I turned back round, making Eliot smile and wink at me.  
"You're thinking about how to play the song, and I'm asking you, 'how do you feel when you play?' You ever been in love?"  
My eyes looked away and searched the room  
"Once," he answered.  
"How did it end?"  
"I made her a promise that if she ever needed me that I'd be there for her," he said and I could hear in his voice that he found it hard to talk about.  
"What's wrong with that?" Kaye Lynn asked him.  
"Because I made the same promise to the United Stated government and I found out you can't make that promise to more than one person."  
He sounded strained so I got off the sofa and walked over to him, wrapping my arms around him and resting my head against his.  
"That feeling? Right there? Hold on to that, and you'll do just fine," Kaye Lynn said, looking him in the eyes and glancing at me.  
I had the gut feeling she was a little jealous and we all knew how my gut feelings turned out. I don't know if Eliot sensed it as well but he let go of his guitar and put an arm round my waist.  
I knew moving to America was a good idea.  
When Eliot was ready to go downstairs, I went onto the balcony to watch him and saw Sophie on the opposite side. She noticed me and smiled at me.  
I looked down and watched Eliot sitting down at the microphone on stage.  
"Hi, I'm Kenneth Crane. And, uh, I'm gonna sing a song . . .I'm gonna sing . . .sing a song I wrote about . . .the road not travelled." He took a deep breath and started singing.  
"_Well, I know they say all good things must come to some kind of ending we were so damn good_."  
"Nate something's wrong," Hardison said, sounding panicked.  
"_I guess we never stood a chance_."  
"All right, What is it?" Nate asked.  
"Uh . . .the system's not working. S-something's wrong."  
"No, it's fine," Nate told him.  
"No, it's not fine. I'm looking at it right now. It's not correcting his voice."  
"_Listenin' you'll see I'm not that easy to forget and when a new moon shines through your window or you hear a sad song on the radio . . ._" Eliot sang.  
"That's because it doesn't need correcting."  
While Nate and Hardison were talking and Eliot was singing, I was watching with my eyes watering up and a lump in my throat. Oh god, he sounded so amazing, so-so . . .beautiful. I held a hand up to my mouth and Sophie smiled, looking proud of Eliot and then mouthed to me, 'are you okay?'  
I just nodded and choked out to Nate, "you've heard him sing before?"  
"Once or twice," he answered me. "Are you okay? You sound a bit-"  
"I-I can't believe it. I mean, he's amazing, he sounds so good," I said past the lump.  
"_and you don't know why but you just start to cry or you're drivin' round on a sunny day and out of nowhere comes the pouring rain and a memory hits you right out of the blue yeah, that's just me thinking of you and I'm thinking about the road you're on, I'm thinking about you coming home, I'm wondering if you got your radio on_."  
I tried to stop the tears but I felt them tip over and trickle down my cheeks.  
"_Yeah, when you find your way to another town and someone tries to lay you down and a memory hits you right out of the blue it's just me thinking of you, yeah, it's just me thinking of you_."  
As Eliot finished the song, he looked up to me and our connected and it felt like our hearts did too.  
The audience went wild and I applauded along with them, feeling so proud of him.  
When he left the stage, I headed to the Green Room and Kaye Lynn was in there.  
"He was amazing," she said.  
"I didn't know he could sing like that," I said, pulling myself together and wiping my eyes before Eliot get here.  
"How long have you been together?" Kaye Lynn asked.  
"Not long," I said and Eliot walked in.  
"How'd I . . .How'd I do?" He came up me and asked, his hands on my shoulders.  
"Oh Eliot, you were so amazing!" I cried and hugged him.  
He wrapped his arms round me too and Kaye Lynn let herself out.  
When we pulled away, he kissed me, more passion in it what he'd kissed me with before. Sure, we'd made out lots of times since we got together but this just felt . . .different.  
"Hang on," he said, taking his ear bud out and put it on the table.  
He leant into the ear that I didn't have mine in and whispered to take it out; I did as he said and when it was lying next to his, he went back to kissing me, picked me up and carried me to the sofa, making me giggle.  
I was layed out and Eliot was on top of me, looking down.  
"I was really that good?"  
"I know you said you could sing but . . .oh god, you were just so . . .I loved it," I put my arms around his neck.  
Eliot's reply was to kiss me, his tongue massaging mine, thumbs rubbing my cheekbones.  
I moved my hands up and ran them through his hair; god, I loved his hair.  
Eliot's hands left my cheeks and they searched my body as they made their way down to my waist.  
After another five minutes of connecting physically with each other and Eliot searching his way back up my body, we pulled apart and stood up.  
"Maybe you should . . ." I laughed and smoothed his hair down.  
"I think we should get our own hotel room tonight," Eliot said and gave me a soft kiss before handing me my earbug and putting his in.  
"Yes please," I smirked at him and froze when I heard what was going on in the bud.  
"Sit down!" Both me and Eliot heard someone order Nate.  
"Nate! Nate, I'm on my way!" Eliot shouted and he ran out, me in tow.  
Once we'd found out that Nate had been found by Kirkwood in a room with the two thugs knocked out, everyone headed back to the hotel.  
"Now, that is how you run a fiddle game," Nate said.  
"I don't even know how to begin to thank you," Kaye Lynn gushed.  
"And that's just 10% of it. Now, tomorrow, he's taking Eliot into the studio. And we'll get you the other 90%."  
"And while Eliot's in the studio, Parker will get into the safe and grab the masters," Sophie added.  
"I'm coming with you, right?" I asked Eliot, sat on his lap. Me! Not Kaye Lynn!  
"Of course you are, I need your support," Eliot said to me.  
"Ohh! Eliot's the fiddle! Ha ha ha!" Parker shouted from one of the rooms.  
"What's she doing back there?" Hardison asked.  
"She's trying on her costume," Sophie answered.  
"We sold Eliot to Kirkwood. I totally get this," Parker was still talking to herself.  
She really made me laugh and I really was definitely liking her more.  
"Come on, let's go," Eliot said to me and I stood up.  
"Where you guys going?" Hardison asked me.  
"We got our own room," Eliot answered.  
"Oh yes, man, go! Take care of that sexual tension and don't back til it's gone," Hardison said, shooing us with his hands.  
I left with Eliot and caught Sophie smiling at me, cuddled up to Nate.

* * *

In the hotel room, Eliot whispered in my ear to sit on the bed.  
"Okay," I said, walking backwards to the bed and pulling him with me.  
I sat on it and shuffled up while Eliot took his t-shirt off, revealing the legendary wife-beater underneath.  
"You always wear that, don't you?"  
"Yeah," he nodded and knelt at me feet working his way up.  
When he was far enough up, I sat up and put my hands under his wife-beater; his stomach was soft and the muscles hard under my fingers.  
I pushed his top higher and higher as I kissed the skin and he pushed his hair back and sighed.  
"You like that, huh?" I looked up at him and he looked back at me, then pulled it off.  
Aah, there was that body I loved.  
"You have such a sexy body," I looked him over, biting my lip.  
"And you know just what to say," Eliot pushed me down.  
"Well, I am persuasive," I winked at him and he kissed me.  
"Mmm." I wrapped my arms around him.  
Like earlier, his hands started working over my body but when they came back up, they brought my top up with them.  
I giggled, nervously, and pulled it over my head and less than two minutes later, we were both naked.  
"You don't waste time do, you?"  
"I've wanted this for a while," Eliot lied back on top of me.  
"Really?"  
"Really," he replied and kissed me neck.  
"Me too. Right from the beginning-oh god!" I cried out, surprised when Eliot's fingers starting massaging me and working into my g-spot.  
"Oh Eliot." I moved one of my hands down to Eliot was happy to know I made him hard, and grabbed his hair with my other hand.  
"Yeah?"  
I felt him move over a little and position himself. When he pushed into him, I realised my hands hadn't done him justice, he was really impressive.  
I kissed his shoulder, up him neck and worked my way to his mouth, unable to believe this was happening. I wasn't a model, or a bimbo or knock-out beautiful but here I was with Eliot Spencer, long-haired, sexy Eliot Spencer.  
He massage my tongue with his as I wrapped my legs around his waist, raising my hips to meet him.  
"Yeah, Sherrie," he groaned against my lips before kissing me again.  
When we were both close to the edge, I dragged my nails up his back and his thrusts became faster and harder.  
"Oh god, oh god!" I cried out and four minutes later, stars exploded in front of my eyes.  
"Yeah baby," Eliot said as he reached release.  
"Eliot, that was amazing," I sighed and turned to face him after he'd rolled off me.  
"You were amazing," he held the side of my face.  
"It was better than I imagined."  
"You imagined it?" He asked me and I blushed. "Hey, it's okay."  
We both started to feel sleepy and as I closed my eyes, I asked, "Eliot, what are you going to when you wake up? You only sleep for 90 minutes."  
"I'll find something, I'll probably read," he answered.  
"You read? Me too," I held his hand.  
"Come here," he said and pulled my onto his chest. Man, he felt good.  
"Wake me up when you wake up and I'll sit up with you."  
"Oh no, you need to sleep."  
"Just wake me up," I said and Eliot finally agreed but we both knew he wasn't going to.

* * *

When I seen Parker the next morning, I was laughing even harder; she was in a yellow dress with a furry duck boa on it, with the duck head! The short, white wig on her and the fake eyelashes under her left eye made her look remarkably like Lady Gaga.  
Me and her and Hardison all headed to the studio after Eliot told us he'd meet us there.  
After Hardison and Parker had caused a hilarious distraction, I had to look out the window the assistant there couldn't see me laugh, Hardison tried to find out when out star would be here.  
"Hey, yo, Eliot, you got an ETA?"  
"Yeah, I'm almost there. But I think someone's following me," he answered.  
I frowned at Hardison.  
"Do some Eliot-fu on 'em. What happened to 'this is what I do'?"  
"Eliot-fu, ok I like that. That's what I'm gonna call it from now on," I laughed at Hardison's comment.  
"Yeah, I don't think that's gonna work this time," Eliot said, ignoring me.  
We could hear girls screaming in the background through Hardison's phone.  
Hardison raised some pages on his laptop screen. "I been meaning to tell you, this, uh, Kenneth Crane? He is blowing up on Twitter. He got a fan page and everything. It's a pretty good picture too."  
Me and Parker smiled at each other.  
"That's the problem. I can't have my picture out there like that," Eliot cried and puffed as he started running.  
"Well, contrary to what y'all may believe, I do not control everything that happens on the internet," Hardison told him.  
"There's a price on my head. In three different countries and I'm certain a fatwa was issued!"  
"What's a fatwa?" I asked.  
"It's a ruling against me in the Islamic law," Hardison told me, and spoke to Eliot while tapping away.. "You are so vain, man. Boom. There. Fan site . . .nuked. But you know what? When you get back, we gonna have us a serious conversation about the difference between caution and paranoia."  
"When you've done the things I've done, there's no such thing as paranoia."  
Hardison hung up the phone and the worker opened the door a few minutes later.  
"Mr. Crane arrived just a moment ago. He's just setting up in his studio now."  
Me and Hardison both walked into the studio.  
"You're not joining them?" The worker asked Parker.  
"And risk being tainted?" She answered in a stupid voice and I bit my lip.  
"By what?"  
"Exactly. Which was to the meditation temple? Hmm?" Parker walked away, the worder following her.  
"Parker's on the loose, but there are a lot of unfriendlies," Hardison said to Nate.  
"Yeah, which is exactly why we have cover stories. How's Eliot?"  
"He's good. He's about to record so he took his comm out. You ready man?" Hardison answered Nate and then asked Eliot.  
"Whew. Yeah," he said replied, sitting down with his guitar.  
"Don't worry, you'll be great," I gave him a thumbs up.  
Hardison let him know he was ready and Eliot started to sing.  
"_When a new moon shines through you window or you hear a sad song on the radio . . ._"  
"Hold up, man. It's . . .it's a little pitchy. It's . . .just a scosh. A little pitchy."  
"Hardison," I pouted at him but knew he was doing this as a diversion to give Parker more time to find the safe. I was still annoyed at him stopping Eliot singing.  
"_When a new moon shines through your win-_" Eliot started again but was stopped.  
"It's pitchy in that very same spot, right? It's . . .yeah, it's a little pitchy."  
"_And when a new . . ._"  
"Hold, up man," Hardison stopped him again.  
"Hang on, man. Let me get into the song," Eliot said, annoyed.  
"Did you practice your warbles? Just put a . . .smooth it out. Like, you . . .when a new moon shines through your . . ." Hardison started singing and I laughed.  
"_When a new moon shines through your window or you hear a sad song on the radio and you don't know why, but you start to . . ._"  
I was smiling at Eliot and we both frowned at Hardison when he stopped him . . .again.  
"No. Ma-"  
"Listen to me, man. Say 'pitchy' one more time . . . Say 'pitchy' one more time and see what happens. I don't even think that word means what you think it means," Eliot said, sounding like he was getting angry.  
"It means 'pitchy'," Hardison was deliberately trying to wind him up.  
"Define it," Eliot ordered.  
"You define it."  
"I don't have to define it! I'm not saying it every five seconds!" Now he was angry.  
"Calm down, Eliot; you know how much it turns me on when you get angry," I said through the mic and a dirty smile spread across his face while Hardison started.  
"I'm . . .I'm sorry. Well, I can't . . .I lost you. I can't hear you. I'm sorry. I . . .I . . .it . . ."  
Eliot started recording again; a copy for me and him, and me and Hardison heard Parker ask, "isn't the recording studio supposed to be soundproof?"  
"Uh, yeah. Completely," Nate answered.  
Minutes later, Parker came into the office. "You're not done yet?"  
"He's doing one for the two of them," Hardison said, nodding to me.  
"Well, I found it," she said and dumped loads of tapes on the counter.  
"Got it."  
"Um . . .Hey, look. This is that song Kirkwood did. This is the original master, Why is the artist's name blacked out?"  
Watching Eliot, I saw him stop and then start singing again and the door open.  
I couldn't hear what was going on inside but I saw Eliot put down the guitar and stand up.  
The guy who came in, one of Kirkwood's, pulled a gun on Eliot and I started to smile, not worried because I know Eliot could handle him, and I knew I was about to watch him fight.  
Sure enough, Eliot picked microphone stand and hit the guy with it; when the guy got up, Eliot threw a punch at him and he went flying.  
Looking at the glass, Eliot mouthed 'let me out.'  
I shook my head, smiling and he just rolled his eyes then turned back to beat the guy up as I watched, my hand pressed against the screen. Behind me, Hardison and Parker were playing Kirkwood's tape.  
"It's not the same," Parker said, comparing it to the video we'd watched.  
"Which one is Kirkwood?" Nate asked.  
"That's just it. Neither. It's the same song, just with a pitch adjustment," Hardison explained and I continued watching Eliot fighting, my toes curling.  
He banged on the glass, trying to get me to let him out and I kept shaking my head.  
With a few final punches, the guy finally went down and Eliot burst into the office.  
"You wouldn't let me out!" He shouted at me.  
"I knew you could handle it," I shrugged innocently.  
"You really like watching me fight that much? What's wrong with you?"  
I looked at Eliot, unsure how to react, but Eliot made it clear when he spun me round, pressed me against the wall, kissing me hard.  
"Whoa, guys, no!" Hardison waved his hands and turned the other way. "Stop!"  
"What? What's going on?" Nate demanded.  
"Trust me, boss, you do not want to know."  
Eliot let me go, both of us breathing fast and took his earbug off Hardison. "Let's go!"  
The four of us left and headed to the hotel.  
"Oh. All right. Good," Nate said when we got back and Parker dropped the taped onto the table in front of him. "Ahh, I do love it when a plan comes together. Okay . . .uh . . .yeah, but where-where's the tape?"  
Everyone looked at Nate, who was holding up an empty cassette case.  
"I think I may have left her tape in the deck," Hardison said, guiltily.  
"Unbelievable!" Eliot shouted and put on a coat.  
"Where are you going?" Nate asked.  
"When they find Kaye Lynn's tape, they're gonna want to ask her some questions, and we know they don't ask questions very nicely, do they?"  
"Hey, now hang on a minute. You were the one that came bursting in and distracted us with your little make-out session," Hardison pointed and I looked away, out of the window, embarrassed.  
"You are not pinning this on me! Damn it, Hardison!" Eliot snapped and then stormed out.

Half an hour later, in the earbugs, Eliot asked what the plan was.  
"All right, come back to the hotel. We're reworking the approach. Hit him hard in a couple of days," Nate replied.  
"No. Kirkwood's getting ready to sing this song in front of the Who's Who of country music," Eliot informed us.  
"Listen, uh, you know, it's too late to stop him tonight."  
"No, I hacked into his truck's navigational system. He's on the move. It's game over," Hardison said.  
"Eliot, if he plays that song in front of those A & R's, I'll lose it forever," we heard Kaye Lynn say.  
"Eliot, it's too late," Hardison told him again.  
"All right. Help, don't help, but don't tell me it's too late!" Eliot shouted at the team; I loved how he was so passionate about things. I just wish Kaye Lynn didn't have the obvious crush on him.  
The rest of us made our way to Saddlebag Saloon and Eliot asked us if we could see Kirkwoord.  
"No, not yet," Sophie answered.  
"All right. A few more minutes."  
I could hear the motorbike through the earbug and was jealous that I wasn't on the back.  
"Eliot, I'm sorry. We did everything we can," Sophie apologised.  
"Maybe not everything," Parker said and mine and Sophie's mouths dropped as Parker got up on the stage to stall things.  
"Oh my god, what is she doing?" I gasped.  
I watched as Parker started making stupid noises and squeezing the head of her duck.  
"Hey, surprised to see me?" I heard Eliot ask Kirkwood and I smiled, happy he was here.  
"Why would you say that?" Kirkwood asked?  
"Well, you tried to kill me. Same way you killed Jessie Jenkins."  
"You're unstable, Kenneth. And I'd really like to help you, if you'd let me." Kirkwood paused and I heard Eliot gasp like he'd been punched. "You think I'm gonna confess to a murder in a room full of microphones? If I was that stupid, I never would have gotten away with it."  
I took a guess where they were and started heading to find Eliot; as I was leaving, I saw Parker stage with security and the announcer say, "well, let's put an end to the amateur night and give a warm welcome to Mitchell Kirkwood!"  
He appeared on stage and started singing.  
"_Well, I know they say all good things must come to some kind of ending we were so damn good I guess we never stood a chance to go and find what you've been missin' and when that highway's tired of listenin' you'll see I'm not that easy to forget and when-_"  
He sounded crap compared to Eliot and I paused when Kaye Lynn appeared on the balcony carrying on the song, glancing to the side; that told me where Eliot was.  
"_And when a new moon shines through your window or you hear a sad song on the radio and you don't know why, but you just start to cry or you drivin' round on a sunny day and out of nowhere comes the pouring rain and a memory hits you right of the blue that's just me thinking of you_."  
"_The same way you killed Jesse Jenkins_," Eliot's voice came out of the speakers.  
"Y_ou think I'm gonna confess to a murder in a room full of microphones? If I was that stupid, I wouldn't have gotten away with it,_" Kirkwood's voice followed.  
I realised that Hardison must have something to do with this.  
At the side of the stage, I found Eliot and he wrapped an arm around me but removed it when Kirkwood came off stage.  
"Let me explain something to you, Kirkwood."  
"Yeah?" Kirkwood raised an eyebrow to Eliot.  
"Next time you hit somebody in the stomach and you want 'em to stay down," Eliot blocked the punch thrown at him. "You gotta hit him in the solar plexus!"  
"Ooh!" Kirkwood cried and keeled over when Eliot hit him.  
"See the difference?"  
He came back over to me and put his arm back round my shoulders.  
When Kaye Lynn started walking towards us, I looked up at Eliot and told him I'd give them a minute, but not before giving her my death stare.  
"There's a lot of A & R's who want to meet with me. Thank you. For my brother, too," she said and I was just close enough to hear.  
"For what? It was all you."  
"Thank you for keeping your promise."  
"Speaking of that . . ." Eliot pulled the master from his pocket and handed it her. "That's yours. That's for your trip to Nashville."  
"You can come with me, you know? You're a natural-born country stay if I've ever seen one. Maybe the next Johnny and June?" She said.  
I had no idea who they were, but when she said country star, I thought back to our last job and Eliot on the horse. Oh, he was a country star, all right.  
"Some roads, you start going down, well, you can't turn back, and I'm about 100 miles down that road right now, so," Eliot replied and laughed. "I sound like a bad country song."  
"You might be 100 miles down that road but at least you've got someone with you," Kaye Lynn looked over at me and smiled. I had to smile back, knowing she'd backed off.  
She was pulled away and Eliot made his way to me and the rest of the team, who had now joined me.  
"Ready?" Nate asked.  
"Yeah," Eliot grabbed my hand. "Tell me something, man. How'd you take those two guys out by yourself?"  
"Oh, they got into a fight," Nate answered.  
"Yeah, but, really, I mean, how'd you do it?" Eliot asked again.  
"Can't say it any plainer. They got into a fight."  
"You're not . . .you're not gonna tell me . . ."  
We started heading to the exit and a young girl stopped in front of me and Eliot.  
"Excuse me, sir?"  
"Yeah. Oh, man. All right. This is the last one, sweetie," Eliot smiled and pulled out a pen.  
"I just wanted to know what time it was," the girl said, looking confused.  
"Yeah. I know. It's late. Go home. It's past your bedtime," Eliot said, sounding stubborn.  
"Don't worry, I'm still your fan. I always will be," I squeezed his hand and we all left.  
Another job finished. Another job successful.


End file.
